The Morecambe midfield ace scored a goal in either half to dent the hosts' hopes of sealing automatic promotion and was denied a third by a handball decision which left boss Sammy McIlroy furious.

Drummond opened the scoring on eight minutes when he headed home Michael Twiss' right-wing free-kick and the Shrimps then had several chances to extend their lead in a dominant first half.

Twiss had a glorious chance to make it 2-0 when the ball dropped perfectly for him in the area but with time on his hands, he rushed his effort and shot disappointingly wide.

Diarmuid O'Carroll then forced Paul Jones into an excellent save low to his left and Dave Artell blazed over the bar from the rebound when he too had the goal at his mercy.

The home side, searching for a win that would earn them automatic promotion in front of a full house, failed to test Barry Roche in a flat first 45 minutes.

Their best efforts came when a Ryan Harley free-kick floated inches past the right-hand post and Berti Cozic dragged a shot wide from the edge of the area after a poor clearance from Mark Duffy.

But the home side stormed into the lead with two goals at the start of the second half. Dean Moxey fired Exeter level on 48 minutes after
racing on to Stuart Fleetwood's pass.

And Harley put the Grecians ahead shortly after with a fine shot from the edge of the area that beat Barry Roche low to his right.

But once again the Shrimps showed the spirit that has seen them lose just two of their last 19 games and they dominated the final stages again.

Drummond was denied a stunning second after a superb volley past Jones was harshly ruled out for handball by Gavin Ward.

But even that did not deter the Shrimps, and Drummond was soon back in the middle of the action when with 12 minutes left, he diverted another fine Twiss free-kick past Jones from 12 yards out.

Substitute Matty Blinkhorn then spurned a late chance to win the game for the Shrimps when his first touch took him away from goal in injury-time and the Shrimps had to settle for their 18th league draw of the season.

McIlroy revealed that striker Rene Howe was left out of the squad at Exeter for disciplinary reasons.

McIlroy said: "We decided to leave Rene out of the trip because of a breach of club discipline. It is an issue that we'll deal with internally as a club."