Ayo Lekuti's early goal secured Rugby Town a vital NPL Midlands win at Shepshed Dynamo.
In a fairly dour game of few clear cut chances on a difficult playing surface at the Dovecote, Lekuti followed up on his first ever Valley goal the previous weekend at Quorn with the crucial game clincher. after just five minutes..
Bodi Thistleton returned to the Town starting line-up in place of the injured Jiah Medrano, as Town manager Ian King otherwise stuck to the team that had played so well in the second half at Quorn - with Ryan Sahota back on the Rugby bench after a four-match absence.
Rugby made a bright start to the game, with Caine Elliott nearly playing in Finn Flanagan on the right, but the travelling Valley faithful did not have to wait long to cheer a goal when Flanagan released Trey Charles down the left and Rugby's top scorer surged into the area before picking out Lekuti - who got in front of his marker to neatly tuck the ball into the net from six yards.
Josh Thomas then headed an Elliott corner into Dan Wallis's arms, before the hosts registered their first shot of the game when Alex Troke's deflected effort flew wide for a corner.
Wallis then pulled off a top drawer reaction stop to keep out Charles's close range touch to another Elliott set-piece delivery, before the hosts started to exert more pressure by pumping lots of balls into the Rugby box in the lead up to half-time.
Josh Thomas blocked Troke's goalbound snapshot in the area, and Micah Edwards did similar with Jude Collins' effort in the first half.
Shepshed centre back Luke Cox's header then drifted just wide, and Aaron Korpal's strike on the turn was way off-target, with Cox again heading beyond the frame not long after the restart.
Town generally stood up well to Dynamo's second-half aerial bombardment though, with Hathaway keeping out Troke's shot on the turn and then did the same to a glancing header from the same striker.
Rugby thought they had extended their lead though when Tyreace Brown rose superbly above two Shepshed defenders and Wallis to head home Thistleton's corner, but was somehow adjudged to have committed a foul in the process.
Callum Burkley's cross/shot flew wide, before Troke struck the base of the post with the hosts' best chance of an equaliser.
Troke had two further opportunities to ruin Valley's afternoon, but he first blazed a free-kick over and then saw Hathaway get down well to save his shot from the edge of the penalty area.
