Tisdale felt Exeter's disallowed goal should have stood

In the closing stages, Liam McAlinden’s effort was ruled out for what was a clear foul on Town stopper Marek Stech by sub Robbie Simpson in the build-up.

However, Tisdale saw things differently, saying: “We thought it was a goal. The referee was very consistent with his decisions but we thought it was a goal.

“We saw very little wrong with it but he was very consistent with numerous decisions he gave the same way during the game so we weren’t surprised.”

Exeter came into the game just nine points behind the Hatters with genuine ambitions of promotion this season, but had their three game winning run ended by Luton courtesy of Harry Cornick’s 38th minute strike.

Tisdale felt his depleted side gave it their all, but admitted it was a fair result, adding: “We’re disappointed to have lost the game, I thought we put a lot of effort in, a really tough team performance, but on the balance of play they deserved to win it.

“That aside, I’m really pleased with my team and the way they put themselves about.

“It was a big challenge for us, recovery from the Wednesday night game was difficult and we had real issues in our back four as you could probably see from selection.

“We had six members of the defence all missing, so to have defended the game as well as we did and finish the game with three at the back in Kane Wilson, Dean Moxey and Jordan Storey shows a lot about the way the squad pulled together and tried really hard.

“We thought at 1-0, we had a chance of nicking one towards the end – that’s what it was going to be, it was going to be a case of nicking one – but we couldn’t quite do it.

“They’re a good team and on the flow of play they had plenty of attacks at our goal but we can be proud of the way we played.”