Queens Park Rangers manager Ian Holloway says his side can take heart and learn lessons from the progress of fellow Championship outfit Brighton and Hove Albion.

Holloway’s side were beaten 2-1 at Loftus Road by Chris Hughton’s Seagulls on Friday night, a result which saw the visitors take a giant step towards automatic promotion to the Premier League.

After going behind to strikes from Glenn Murray and Sébastien Pocognoli, Rangers rallied and pulled a goal back through Matt Smith.

A gutsy Rangers applied late pressure, but Brighton held out and Holloway’s side suffered their third league defeat on the spin.

The Rangers boss felt his side gave a good account of themselves, and can continue to progress in order to establish themselves as one of the teams to beat in next season’s Championship campaign.

And he admitted to feeling a pang of envy when looking at the situation on the Sussex coast.

"If they're the benchmark, we have to look and ask 'how far away from them are we?' We didn't look that far,” Holloway said.

"Full credit to Chris and his team and the way they do it, I'm looking with a bit of envy to be fair, they're coming a long, long way, although I'm very pleased with the progress we've made.

"I like to win though and maybe we're not quite there yet.

"I'm looking at what I'm going to do next year. I've got some wonderful evidence to show them again, show them what Brighton have done, and how they kept their shape, how they went wide, what they did and what we can do a little bit better.

"At least we're fighting, working our socks off and hopefully the fans are feeling a bit more optimistic about what they're seeing."

Hughton, meanwhile, admitted his side rode their luck as they survived a late QPR onslaught.

“It’s a big win and at this moment every win feels like the biggest one,” said the former Newcastle United boss.

“I thought we deserved it, we rode our luck near the end but over the 90 minutes I felt we were the better side.

“It became an old-fashioned game at the end, when you are 2-0 down you are going to go direct. They were difficult to handle but we showed great character and determination.”