DAVID DUKE said the players had resisted the temptation to think 'here we go again' after falling behind to Bobby Zamora's early goal.

The wing back was sightly disappointed that Town had not gone on to win the match after grabbing an equaliser through Eric Sabin.

The Scotsman said the players were determined to try and rectify the damage suffered at Loftus Road on Wednesday night.

He said: "We started off brightly but then all of a sudden we leaked a goal from nowhere.

"That was a terrible feeling but credit to all the boys for fighting back.

"We did very well for the rest of the half and we began to believe that we could get something from the game.

"The fact that we had started well really spurred us on after the goal. Nobody's head dropped. We've kept plugging away and everyone was delighted to see Eric finally score for the club, and an important goal at that."

Duke felt Town could have snatched all three points but perhaps a hangover from three defeats in the league may have been to blame.

He said: "Perhaps the last three games had knocked us off track a little. But I think we had more chances and the boys up front held the ball up better. That allowed the team as a unit to get forward and support them."

Duke felt the Brighton game was very important in terms of getting at least a point but also to keep belief in tact.

"We made the game go in our favour rather than hoping or waiting for something to happen."

The former Sunderland man said it was important to end the stop-start-stop nature of Town's season and build a solid platform.

One decent result in a seas of poor results was simply not good enough. He said: "We know that we haven't got the results we know we're capable of in the last few games and only we can put it right."

Finally, Duke said the fans had played their part in making sure Town had secured a point.

He said: "Brighton brought a lot of fans but our supporters made plenty of noise and that's something all the lads appreciate."