Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell has praised his defence after their 1-0 win at Leyton Orient.

The victory was Exeter’s third in the last five League One matches and moved them up to 10th in the table.

It was also a fourth successive clean sheet in all competitions for the Grecians.

“When we were asked to defend the box we were outstanding and when the goalie was asked to make saves he was outstanding,” Caldwell said.

“You need your whole team to perform and at different moments it’ll be different parts of the team, but I thought Tristan (Crama) and Joe (Whitworth) were superb in how we defended and managed to keep that clean sheet.

“That’s five clean sheets in eight games and that is the foundation for any good team, so we have to keep that going.”

Exeter have been on an excellent run of form, which has seen them lose just one match in all competitions in their last seven games – a last-minute 2-1 loss at Blackpool on Steven Bruce’s debut as Seasiders’ boss.

But despite that good form Caldwell feels there is a lot of improvement to come in his side, who are two points off the play-off places.

“There’s a real spirit within the group, but I have to be honest, we can play so much better,” he told BBC Radio Devon.

“In possession second half we lost control and really had to defend for our lives.

“We did create some good moments on the counter-attack where I think we can kill the game off and we didn’t, so in certain actions and individually I think we have to be better.

“But the spirit within this group is incredible, and to go back-to-back away games, to travel as far as we do, they deserve a lot of credit for two clean sheets and four points.”