PAUL Tisdale believes Exeter City's thrilling Johnstone's Paint Trophy area final first leg against Brentford has set the scene perfectly for next month's return.

The Grecians drew 1-1 in an end-to-end encounter at Griffin Park on Monday night, with former City man Gary Alexander equalising after Jamie Cureton had given the visitors a half-time lead.

And Tisdale declared himself delighted with the manner in which his side performed.

He said: "I'm really happy with the way we played. Of course I would have liked not to have conceded, but it's going to make a very good second tie.

"Our performance showed a lot of attacking endeavour and we deserved a goal, we defended very well and we conceded a goal second half to good pressure from them and we didn't quite deal with it.

"But they do put you under a lot of pressure for a long time and it's hard to see that out when you are 1-0 up.

"We all know this is a very precarious match when it's two legs and it's very hard to predict the second leg and what's best for your team going into the second leg. It's a draw, we are evens and going back to St James's Park."

Tisdale retained the 4-3-3 formation his side played at Griffin Park during the npower League One game against the Bees on Friday night.

And the decision looked likely to pay dividends throughout the first half when the Grecians enjoyed chance after chance.

Striker Daniel Nardiello in particular enjoyed plenty of sights at goal, but Brentford keeper Richard Lee proved equal to everything the ex-Manchester United trainee could throw at him.

Tisdale said: "I wanted to make sure we had every chance of scoring and I actually think we could have scored one or two before the goal.

"Their goalkeeper made a couple of brilliant saves – the first one from Nardiello really was brilliant. He had four chances and was so dangerous.

"David Noble was brilliant again, he's coming into form now. Cureton scored a wonderful goal again and they all did their bit, Richard Duffy was class, real class when he had to make positional decisions.

"He has got the ability to be a top player. He's been there, he's ben signed to the Premier League and he's a very gifted football decision-maker, and there's no reason he can't go back to the levels he was at before."

Bees boss Andy Scott was not so happy with his own team's showing, although he was pleased the hosts improved after the break.

"In the first half we gave the ball away too much, made unnecessary errors and didn't give ourselves a chance," said the Brentford manager.

"We weren't quick enough to the ball. It's amazing we can be like that in a game where we can get to Wembley."