A fine individual goal by Josh Ruff secured Valley a long-awaited Butlin Road victory and also ended their run of four consecutive defeats.

Ruff’s first strike for the club came just before the hour mark in a game which had seen Town twice fall behind to the Worcestershire side in the opening period.

With regular keeper Niall Cooper out with a groin injury, there was a debut for Lewis Gwilliams, whilst Brad Harris, Ben Ashby and Ruben Wiggins-Thomas all returned to the starting line-up.

Despite some early pressure from the hosts which saw efforts from James Dance and Wiggins-Thomas both fail to hit the target, it was Stourport that went ahead on eighteen minutes when Nick MacPherson made inroads down the left before pulling the ball across to Aaron Lloyd – who turned well before slotting past Gwilliams.

Six minutes later James Dance levelled things up though, forcing the ball home from close range after David Kolodynski had initially miscued his shot.

However the visitors’ response was even more rapid, when Lloyd soon grabbed his second of the game when he headed in Joe Colley’s centre to stun the home crowd once more.

Wiggins-Thomas then headed one onto the roof of the net, before Swifts’ Jim Hanson struck the woodwork, and the end-to-end nature of the encounter continued with Sam Belcher, Wiggins-Thomas and Dance all failing to make the most of their half chances.

Just ahead of the interval Ashby did find the top corner of the net with a gloriously curled strike to make it two apiece, after Wiggins-Thomas had teed up the shot for him.

The opening opportunity of the new period fell to Stourport, with Gwilliams denying Jim Hanson in a decent position, although Rugby also squandered a great chance of taking the lead themselves when Kolodynski’s pinpoint ball across the face of the box found Wiggins-Thomas – only for the striker to fire his effort at the legs of keeper Dom Richards.

The winner came on 59 minutes when Ruff regained possession midway into the opposition half before powering into the box and showing good composure to score past Richards.

Swifts’ sub Sam Beasley lifted one over and Gwilliams also saved a decent header by Lloyd, but generally Valley saw out the remainder of the game effectively, with Aiden Print also going close to his first Town goal when his well-struck effort from distance was turned round the post by Richards in the closing minutes of the match.

Valley Line-up: Gwilliams; Harris, M Rowley, Castleton; Print, Ashby, Ruff, Belcher; Dance; Wiggins-Thomas (Shakespeare), Kolodynski (Holloway). Subs not used: Birch, Thornton. Booked: Harris.

Stourport line-up: Richards, Caines, Wager, Priest, Hurrell, Fulloway, Jim Hanson, Colley, Lloyd, MacPherson, Bailey. Subs: Beasley, Joe Hanson, Maund, Perry, Smith.