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A first half goal by Martin Devaney – the striker’s 18th of the season – gave Rovers a superb win and helped close the gap between second-placed Rovers, with two games in hand, and the leaders to three points.

Afterwards Moat boss Steve Dolby insisted that his reshuffled had always believed a win was on the cards.

“We came here thinking we had a chance and when they came at us our defending was brilliant,” he said. “They didn’t have a clear cut chance, although Bob Aston made one brilliant save from a free kick. We knew we had to get at them and I thought our goal was the goal of the season – we must have strung together eight passes out of defence and it was a great finish by Martin Devaney.”

And Dolby was fulsome in his praise for teenage defender Nathan Foster, saying, “Under the circumstances, he was my man of the match – he was so composed on his debut. I would give him special praise. We had probably three first choice defenders out but the back four played brilliantly.”

But the Rovers boss had a cautionary word for his team, saying: “It’s only one game in a season. Nuneaton are still ahead of us and we’ve lots of games to go. On the night I wouldn’t take anything away from anybody but we’ve got to play like we have tonight in all our games. It was a perfect training session for Saturday – a really good game against a side that’s as good as Bridlington.”

The game was watched by the Beazer Midland Division’s biggest crowd of the season – 2,112.