SKIPPER Darren Pratley says everyone at the club is committed to turning Wanderers' season around and believes they are a better team than they were a year ago.

Saturday's last-gasp defeat at QPR saw the Whites slip into the Championship's bottom three on goal difference ahead of the international break.

They found themselves in a similar perilous position 12 months ago when a poor start to the campaign led to Dougie Freedman's exit from the Macron Stadium.

Neil Lennon took up the reins and steered the club away from relegation danger and Pratley is confident the manager can do that again.

Wanderers may have only won once in 10 league games so far but Pratley, who returned to the side for the first time since the opening day at Loftus Road, hopes fans can see it is not through any lack of effort on the players' part.

He said: "I think we are a better team than we were under the previous manager.

"Obviously the fans will have left disappointed on Saturday but I don't think they could say we weren't committed.

"We scored three away from home and you don't normally do that and lose the game.

"The commitment is there – it was just sloppiness 30 seconds from the end that killed us.

"If we had taken a point we could have gone into the international break in a decent mood.

"A point away from home from 3-2 down at QPR would have been a good result.

"But no one went away from it happy and we are determined to put things right."

It was another stoppage-time goal that consigned the Whites to a fourth defeat from five on the road this term in west London – a bad habit boss Lennon had hoped they had eradicated after scoring two last-gasp strikes of their own to earn points against Nottingham Forest and Brighton on home soil this term.

It was a recurring problem in the second half of last season when Wanderers squandered nine points by shipping last-minute goals at Blackburn and Wigan, and at home to Wolves, Watford, Reading and Norwich.

Pratley was only involved in the 2-2 draw against Wolves of those games – at the end of January – before injury curtailed his season early.

But he knows it is not something they can allow to happen again this season, labelling Saturday's setback as 'soft' in his post-match assessment.

The 30-year-old said: "We get back into it at 3-3 but then with 30 seconds to go we cannot see the game out which is poor.

"To lose it so late on is unacceptable.

"We haven't won away from home in a while but the start we got was a perfect away performance.

"But the late goals were back on Saturday.

"I missed the back end of last season when we were conceding late on but we can't go back to that."