ON-FORM Orient looked a good bet going into the home clash with Brighton but were relieved to only be one goal down at half-time. The eventual draw was more than acceptable, according to O's midfielder Jason Demetriou, who spoke to leytonorient.com after the game.

Jason, did we deserve a point there?

"It's a good result for us on the back of a hard week. We've come away with 11 points from 15 I think, so that's a great start to the second half of the season, but I think we felt a bit tired here. All the boys said they felt a bit leggy, so we're happy with the point."

Were Brighton unlucky not to score more in the first half?

"It's weird how the game turns. They're down there in the league and we've crept up a bit, and it was a bit of a topsy-turvy game, they were on top then we were on top. But we're pleased with the performance, we ground it out and worked hard, and you can't always win pretty. We're happy enough with the point, although we would have liked to have won the game and got massively clear of the bottom."

Sometimes teams who have a big win find the next game a bit tough - is that due to overconfidence?

"I don't think we went into it with a mindset of 'oh it's going to be easy' but it's off the back of a big result and a lot of teams usually lose after that. We've come off with a point but I think we had chances to win it, and they had chances too. It could have gone either way."

We were a lot better second half - did the gaffer have a go at half-time?

"A little bit, but he just said you have to relax, we're playing some nice football but there's a little bit of panic setting in, like, 'they've scored and we're on this run, we need to win, we need to win,' but we dug in well after that. We created some good chances, Scott scored a good goal and we're just looking forward to Leeds now."

The goals were both due to keepers miscontrolling it - is that goalmouth a bit hard to play on?

"It's very sticky over there, it's not the best area of the pitch. Our goal was a bit scrappy, I think the keeper ran into the back of my head! That's what he was going mad about, but I've just gone to block him and he's gone full-steam ahead onto the back of my head, and he couldn't actually see out of one of his eyes. So I think I did my job there. But I'm delighted for Scotty, he's done very well this season."

How important was it to keep the run going, with Leeds here next Saturday?

"I think people will be saying that but we don't want to cause a hype at all, we'll keep quiet and see how we get on. But they're going to be fearing us a little bit, Leeds, we've come off the back of a great run so we're looking forward to it. If we get three points there then people will start taking note of us."

As for your own form, you must be delighted to be back in after a shaky first half of the season?

"It's going well now. I missed a bit of football for a month and a bit but that's football. I hadn't really missed a game for two and a half years so I think the manager has probably done me a favour bringing me out, and I feel fresher now, I've played some of my best football. Obviously it helps when the team are doing so well, the back end of this season we've done excellently so far, and hopefully we can just keep it up."

Jason Demetriou was talking to Si Hawkins