A delighted Phil Veivers caught his breath, reflected on another Town triumph and concluded: “There’s still a load of work to do but we’ve given ourselves a chance of staying up and we can look forward to the Shield games with confidence.”

Town won 32-20 at Oldham Roughyeds after twice opening up a decent lead. Both Town and Haven will play the Roughyeds in their final seven games of the season.

Veivers added: “We twice got into a commanding position (20-6 and 32-18) and nearly let it go, but I can’t fault how the boys battled and how they performed in adversity after we lost both wingers.

“We had to reshuffle the side and in the last 10 minutes, when Oldham were throwing everything at us. we had used up all our substitutions so it was a backs-to-the-wall fight in which we showed plenty of passion and desire.

“It was a team effort. We dominated the first half, and I thought their second try was offside, although we still turned round 20-12 up.

“In the second half, Oldham upped the tempo and gave us some trouble from dummy-half. We had a simple game plan, based on what we knew of them and what we had seen on video, and it worked for us.

“We spoke a week or two back about winning our last three games and we’ve achieved it, which is great credit to the boys.

“I think we’ve gone above Haven, but irrespective of that we’ve given ourselves a chance of staying up. The result was all-important, and we got it.”

Oldham boss Scott Naylor had no complaints and said: “We got what we deserved. To score 30 points at home in a match of massive importance and lose, says a lot about your defence.