Rejuvenated former Norwich City striker Jamie Cureton is now potentially 90 minutes away from fulfilling a career ambition.

Cureton notched his 12th goal in 26 games for Exeter to help the Grecians earn a 1-1 draw at Brentford earlier this week in the first leg of their Football League Trophy southern area final.

Cureton will now aim to help Exeter complete the job in the second leg tie which will be televised live on Sky on February 7 for a place at Wembley against either Carlisle or Huddersfield.

The 35-year-old's second City spell ended last summer, with his final two seasons yielding just four goals for the Canaries, but Cureton is enjoying a late career revival at his tenth professional club.

'A Wembley final would be important financially for the club and a great day out for the fans, and for me personally it would fulfil an ambition I've had for so long but not yet achieved,' he said. 'I really do want to play at Wembley before I retire and hopefully this will be the year, but we've got a tough tie over two legs against Brentford.

'I'd had a frustrating couple of years at Norwich and when you're given a free then people think you can't do the business any more. But that was a driving force for me, it gave me a focus and things have turned out well so far. The job's only half-done though, and in the second half of the season I want to help Exeter get to the Trophy Final and push for promotion.'

Cureton recently signed a new short-term deal with Grecians until the end of the current campaign.

'We have been talking about a new contract for a while,' he said. 'I would have been a free agent again and it was a bit strange to be like that in the middle of the season, so it's nice to get it sorted.

'Now I would like to get to 20 goals. I look at it in stages, so I want to get to 15 as quickly as possible and take it from there.

'Our run of results had not been great over Christmas so we need to get back to playing how we were a few weeks ago because I think we can be a match for anyone. It's a tight league and I think if we can get on a run of form we will be back amongst it.'

Cureton made little impression in his final season at Carrow Road as Grant Holt and Chris Martin spearheaded City's instant return to the Championship and the former Colchester frontman had to bide his time at his latest club before a September brace against rivals Yeovil.

'I have enjoyed it here, it's a good group of lads and we play in a certain way that suits the way I play,' he said. 'I was happy to sign because I'm comfortable. I'm happy at Exeter and it seemed silly to give that up at this stage. Things are going well and I'm enjoying it, so it was quite an easy decision. I didn't speak to anyone else about moving – I always wanted to stay.'