Tigers boss Phil Brown was pleased with some of the football on show in his side's 1-1 draw with KV Oostende at the weekend.

Brown once again fielded two completely different side's in the first and second halves at the Albertparkstadion and took great pleasure from City's first half performance.

"I got 45 minutes of fitness work from the game," he said. "I took a lot of pleasure from watching the first half because I thought the passing, movement and dynamic stuff was there.

"The goal was absolutely outstanding and we kept the ball better than we did in the second half.

"But it is difficult for the lads who came on at halftime, there's no doubt about that, and I wouldn't like to be in their shoes.

"But there are reasons, one being that you can only play 11 players at any time and another being that one or two of the lads were getting up to speed in terms of our fitness levels.

"George Boateng and Bernard Mendy were playing for us for the first time and Wayne Brown was coming back from an injury. The sting does tend to go out of the game in the second half but I was a little bit disappointed that we didn't keep the tempo going."

Brown was also quick to praise the Belgian outfit for giving his side a tough game.

"I thought they were very good opposition given they play in the Belgian second division, although that's probably equivalent to standard of the Championship," he added.

"The majority of our players have obviously been playing in the Championship and it was a good contest.

"With no disrespect to North Ferriby and Winterton it was a tougher challenge and we're starting to come into the league friendlies now.

"I'm sure Chesterfield on Tuesday night will be just as tough, if not tougher than the Ostende game, and that's what we need."