It has been almost 60 years since Wolves last went 11 matches unbeaten in the top flight and they had Diogo Jota to thank for emulating that record after the Portugal forward’s two goals earned a hard-fought point on the south coast.

Wolves ended the 1962-63 season in fifth spot under their legendary manager Stan Cullis and there is every chance this team can at least match that achievement, even if this was by no means a vintage performance from Nuno Espírito Santo’s side.

Having dominated the opening half-hour of this contest in which Jota gave the visitors a deserved lead, Wolves found themselves trailing to goals from Neal Maupay and Davy Pröpper and seemingly heading for a first defeat since mid-September.

Yet it is a testament to the battling qualities instilled by their much-admired manager that they equalised almost immediately through Jota before holding off a second-half onslaught from Graham Potter’s industrious Brighton team to move back up to sixth spot. “Resilience is the correct word,” Nuno said. “Habits, routines that have grown to transform ourselves in character. The way we do things started more than two and a half years ago in the Championship. We never give up and we want to improve. We want to get better.”

Both teams had come into this match buoyed by victory in midweek, with Brighton’s only change to the side which turned over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday involving the record signing Leandro Trossard replacing the injured Aaron Connolly. Nuno named an unchanged side as he attempted to end a remarkably bad run of results against these opponents uring which Wolves failed to score in their past four meetings. Yet the patchy early-season form that led to his side failing to win any of their first six matches as they struggled to cope with the demands of the Europa League is now a distant memory.

Their rapid rise up the table since then thanks to an unbeaten run that stretches back to the 5-2 thumping at home to Chelsea on 14 September is testament to the quality Wolves possess in all areas, though they could easily have found themselves behind inside the first 60 seconds here had Lewis Dunk’s header from a Pascal Gross corner hit the target.

From that point, however, the visitors’ star midfield pairing of Rúben Neves and João Moutinho seized control. Mat Ryan did brilliantly to deny a Romain Saïss header but there was nothing he could do to prevent Jota’s first goal just before the half‑hour. After finding Raul Jiménez following a driving run from the left flank, Jota was on hand to tap home his return ball to the far post to give Wolves a deserved lead.

Yet having spurned a chance to make it 2-0 shortly afterwards, Jota must have watched on in disbelief as somehow Brighton found themselves ahead within five minutes of his miss. A long ball from Dale Stephens from deep in his own half picked out Maupay’s clever run and the French striker sneaked his brilliant first-time shot past the dive of Rui Patrício.

Less than two minutes later, a twisting run down the left from Trossard allowed him to find Pröpper’s head to make it 2-1. It could have been even worse for Wolves had Aaron Mooy’s effort gone the other side of the post but instead they were level on the stroke of half‑time after Pröpper’s errant pass was seized on by Jonny Otto and Jota made no mistake with a smart finish.

After such a frantic end to the half, a more structured pattern of play emerged after the break with Brighton dominating possession and territory. The Wolves bench felt they should have had a penalty following a rare foray forward when Dunk bravely attempted to head the ball on the ground in an attempt to deny Jota his hat-trick, with VAR ruling there was no case to answer for handball.

Potter threw on Glenn Murray and Iran forward Alireza Jahanbakhsh in a move that indicated his desire to secure all three points but admitted a draw was probably all his side deserved in the end having had 24 hours less to recover from their midweek exploits. “It’s a good point against a good team,” he said. “You could see that it was a third game in a week for us because our quality wasn’t quite there. But credit to the players because they kept trying.”