John O’Hara’s team maintain a three point advantage at the top of the table with games in hand.

The manager was full of praise for his players following one of their toughest encounters. He said: “I’m delighted with the points and to keep a clean sheet.

“We applied ourselves well and it showed again what a great desire there is in that changing room.

“We left it late to get the second goal and it was a relief but nobody could deny that the boys deserved the win.” Swirling winds, heavy showers and a sticky surface prevented either team from showing the type of form which has taken them towards the top of the First Division.

And when it came to rolling their sleeves up and battling for supremacy, it was the home team who showed the more desire during the first half.

They were rewarded with the opener on 28 minutes as the evergreen Frankie Arthur ate up the yards to steer Daniel McAleavy’s deep, angled cross beyond Craig Saunders at the back post.

Paul Murray had gone close just five minutes earlier as his curling effort was pushed round the post by the Uni keeper.

The students, and in particular Chris Donnely and Sean Muhsin, had looked dangerous on the break without troubling Darren Walker’s goal.

Heriot-Watt came much more into the match as the second half wore on and it took some timely interceptions from Jim Young, Dale Richardson and Sean Conaghan to prevent Walker having all that much to do.

When the home keeper was called into action he saved well from a powerful Michael Connor freekick on 73 minutes.

All Rovers had managed approaching the closing stages was a Ger Rossi effort which Saunders had saved comfortably enough.

But with three minutes remaining Murray made sure of the points.

The former Preston Athletic striker shimmied away from his marker to rifle a low shot into the far corner of the net from 15 yards.

The celebratory scenes of relief were understandable.

It wasn’t one of Peebles’ most convincing displays of the campaign but sometimes good old hard graft is all that it takes.

O’Hara added: “That was a massive three points for us.

“We are not taking anything for granted as there are two or three good teams on our tail.” Peebles Rovers: D Walker, J Flockhart, D McAleavy, J Young, D Richardson, F Arthur (L Zavaroni 79), P Murray, C Flockhart (S Meikle 15), S Sutherland, G Rossi (D Ndiweni 86) & S Conaghan.