Two goals from Paul Barnes gave Tamworth their fourth consecutive home win and dealt Exeter City's hopes of a play-off place a major blow.
The Grecians needed a win to stay in touch with the top five but Barnes struck in both halves and may have condemned them to another season in the Conference, despite a Les Afful strike deep into injury time.
Barnes was the top-scorer in the Conference last season and his goals fired Doncaster to play-off success but he has found goals hard to come by since switching to The Lamb in January.
He had struck just five times in a Lambs shirt but showed a real poacher's instinct to stab Tamworth in front after 19 minutes. Exeter had failed to clear a Lee Colkin corner and Marcus Ebdon won a challenge with Glenn Cronin on the edge of the area. The ball ricocheted over the defence and Barnes beat goalkeeper James Bittner to the ball to score.
Tamworth were worthy of the lead as Exeter showed very little going forward in the first half. They didn't spring to life until five minutes before the break when Steve Flack and Sean Devine both had good opportunities inside the Tamworth six-yard box, but failed to convert.
Barnes showed them how to finish when he scored his second five minutes after the interval. Ebdon was again involved as he played a great ball over the top of the Exeter defence and Barnes struck a thunderous volley from the edge of the box that flew into the top corner of the net, giving Bittner no chance.
Barnes continued to link up well with strike partner Norman Sylla and the tall Frenchman had a fierce shot deflected wide.
At the other end, the introduction of substitute Afful breathed some life into City and he was creating half chances for the visitors but top-scorer Devine seemed to have left his shooting boots in Devon.
City thought they had pulled a goal back on 89 minutes when Afful played the ball into the box and Martin Thomas forced a good save from Price. The tall keeper could not hold on to the ball and Chris Todd fired home the rebound but was flagged offside.
Afful did pull one back for the Grecians in the third minute of injury time with a low drive from the edge of the box but it was too little, too late to keep Exeter's play-off hopes alive.