ANDY SCOTT insists Brentford are back to their promotion-winning best following Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Bradford.

It would have been easy for the Bees boss to have been down after his side shipped an injury-time equaliser and saw two points snatched away at Valley Parade.

But for Scott, the performance was a vast improvement on last week’s home draw with Gillingham, and showed his troops have got their belief back.

He said: "I’m delighted with the performance. I thought we were outstanding with a great work-rate.

"To come to Bradford and be disappointed to concede an injury-time goal to draw shows we’ve got the desire, determination and will to go and get promoted.

"Everyone expected us to come here and get beat. Rochdale and Bury and Exeter have all lost here, but we deserved to win.

"Stuart McCall, I’m sure, will be grateful for the point. We were a little disappointed until we went in the changing room and saw the other results."

With Charlie MacDonald becoming the third Brentford striker in four weeks to be ruled out for the season, the Bees started with an untried partnership up front of Damian Spencer and Billy Clarke.

Spencer looked every inch the big man the Bees have been missing up front in Nathan Elder’s absence, holding the ball up well and making his huge presence felt superbly.

However, he will probably need to work on his prowess in front of goal if he’s to earn a permanent deal at Griffin Park, having missed a hat-trick of good chances in the opening 20 minutes.

Clarke, who looks as class an act as Brentford’s previous Ipswich loanee, Jordan Rhodes, also had a shot cleared off the line as the Bees could have been out of sight in the opening half-hour.

However, it took two world-class saves from Ben Hamer, from Peter Thorne and Chris Brandon, to keep Bradford out as half-time approached.

There was less goal-mouth action after the interval, but it was Brentford who did all the running and took a deserved lead on 65 minutes when Clarke headed home a classy cross by Ryan Dickson for his first Bees goal.

And so it was a cruel blow when Bradford got an undeserved equalizer deep into stoppage time, Thorne pouncing on a loose ball following another good Hamer save to net from a tight angle.

But if Scott’s men keep performing like this in the coming weeks, promotion surely cannot be far off.

BEES: Hamer, Osborne, Dickson, Powell, Bennett, Hunt, Bean, Wood, Newton, Spencer, Clarke (Williams. S, 84 mins). Subs not used: Simon Brown, Halls, Dobson, Phillips.

ATTENDANCE: 12,832 (553 away fans)