Damien Johnson saluted the moment of magic from Jack Evans which saw Rovers Under-23s establish a four point lead at the top of the PL2 Division Two table.

Evans struck in the final minute from the edge of the area as Rovers beat Southampton at Leyland and are four games away from winning the title.

Southampton goalkeeper Jack Rose had denied Rovers all evening, saving an 80th minute Joe Grayson penalty as well as denying Evans, Lewis Travis and Okera Simmonds with fine saves.

Simmonds was the only attacking player in the matchday 16 because of injury and unavailability, and Johnson knew it might need a moment of quality to win the game.

He said: “We knew with the balance of the group and the attacking options we had that we lacked options.

“It was always going to be a case of could we be clinical with the chances we created.

“Willem’s (Tomlinson) chance, Jack’s chance, and the territory we had an opportunities from wide areas that we had, we thought it might not be our night.

“Then when we missed the penalty you’re thinking it could be (one of those nights) but credit to them.

“Their heads didn’t drop after missing a penalty. They didn’t let it affect them, they stayed on the front foot, they kept persevering, showed resilience and we got there in the end.”

Rovers sit top of the league with four games to go, with closest rivals Aston Villa still to play.

Despite the lack of attacking options, the Rovers defence has proved hard to breach, keeping seven clean sheets in their last nine matches.

And Johnson added: “It was almost like you’re posing the question who is going to unlock the door, who’s going to get the winner for us and be the hero?

“Jack is a terrific kid, great attitude, wherever you ask him to play or whatever you ask him to do he just gets his head down and gets on with it and gives everything he’s got, and that’s every single day.

“He wins the penalty, then he gets the goal.

“The number of opportunities we had to shoot from those kind of areas and we turned them down and you’re thinking ‘just have a go lads, if you don’t buy a ticket you won’t score a goal’,

“I felt overall we did deserve it. Southampton, credit to them.

“They lost their last game 4-0 and had a reaction, they made it difficult for us but we got there in the end.”

Missing penalties has been a flaw of Rovers' all season however, and they were to fail from the spot once again.

Grayson saw his effort denied by Rose, though there was no criticism from his manager.

He said: “In fairness Joe has been practicing and has looked very confident.

“Hitchy (Lewis Hardcastle) was happy for Joe to take it, I think the goalkeeper sucked him in to a mind-game and he fell for it really.

“He left him one side of the goal open and Joe decided to go for the other side where he was.

“We can have a laugh and joke now, but I played and missed penalties, so I’m not going to stand here and criticising people.

“We’ll get back to the drawing board and all we can do is keep practicing.”