Albion trailed early on when Ilmari Niskanen seized on an error from former Exeter defender Alex Hartridge, but defender Jasper Moon salvaged a draw for the home side with his first goal for the club in his 74th appearance.

For the second season in a row Albion secured safety in their final home game, and Bowyer felt it was well deserved.

“It is a feeling of huge pride.” he said. “To have done it two seasons in a row is fantastic.

“We are always battling against it. What you see from these lads is what the club is all about. The work rate, the effort and the desire, which has been immense this season.”

“We were calm at half time and we knew that we just needed a moment in the second half and thankfully we got it.

“Never, ever, ever would I have had Jasper Moon down as the scorer, but he deserves an enormous amount of credit because he has had a torrid season with the injury that he has had. But he has stuck at it and it is absolutely brilliant for him to be the one to score that goal.”

Exeter boss Matt Taylor knows now that his side will need a win and other results to go for them if they are to survive after a run of one win in 19 games left them on the relegation precipice.

“We are all raw right now, in terms of our feelings with results here and elsewhere, but there is still a chance” Taylor said as his side failed to hang on for what would have been an invaluable three points.

“We are still breathing and we are still alive with a lot to play for, and our focus turns very quickly to that.

“We know what a big challenge it is. For the first hour of this game, we were exactly where we needed to be but we were just unable to defend one moment on the outside of the pitch, and they got their goal.

“The frustration is that we then didn’t go and chase the game as well as we did last weekend. We didn’t quite have that intensity or create that bombardment which made that moment last week.

“When we score the first goal we are usually the better team off the back of it, but then there needed to be a collective understanding of what was required second half and we couldn’t quite execute that.”