DEVIZES Town responded to their 8-3 drubbing at the hands of Westbury with a gritty performance full of fire and passion against high-flying Paulton Rovers.

It looked as if Devizes had done enough to take a share of the points after several close-scoring opportunities, but in the dying minutes of the match Rovers struck to snatch an unlikely victory 1-0.

Devizes Town assistant manager Shaun Moffat praised his team's battling performance, which he said was a 100per cent improvement.

"We went out there and we scrapped for everything and if we do that week in week out we're going to finish at least mid-table," he said.

"I was disappointed with the result, but delighted with the attitude of the players."

The Devizes Town came out with all guns blazing in the first half as the teams fought for possession in the midfield. Moffat said the drizzly conditions helped the match as players from both teams flew into tackles.

Devizes goalkeeper Jez Hare pulled of a superb save when he stretched full length to reach a free kick, which seemed bound for the bottom right corner, and tipped it round the upright.

Minutes later Hare was in action again as he tipped a 20 yard strike over the crossbar.

But The Devizes players struck back when striker Marcus Wallen cut inside his man, beat two players and pulled the trigger forcing the Rovers keeper to make a fingertip save.

The rest of the first half was dominated with the battle for midfield supremacy with excellent defending from both sides disrupting both teams' attacks.

Moffat said: "At half time I told the players that we had matched them in every department and they're a big club with a lot of money to spend on wages.

"We knew they had three good players on the bench and I told them if they wanted to win the game they had to be prepared to scrap for another 45 minutes."

After the interval Devizes were unlucky not to score when striker Simon Drewit surged through the midfield, passing the ball to Nick Mooney on the overlap, whose cross was cut out by the keeper with the goal begging.

Wallen had another chance when a cross was floated across the goalmouth, but he could not find the target and Paulton were able to clear their lines.

The Rovers defence cleared again minutes later after the ball scraped the post in a goalmouth scramble.

In the last ten minutes of the game Rovers were awarded a corner kick. The ball caught the wind as it was whipped in and a Rovers striker got a faint contact, which diverted the ball into the goal.