PORT VALE 0

SWINDON TOWN 1

NOT surprisingly manager Richie Wellens made four changes from the line-up that was thrashed last weekend, writes Peter Mitchell.

However, with recalled Marc Richards injuring himself in the warm-up, Elijah Adebayo retained his place by default.

Town started well playing crisp quick football and were duly rewarded when they took the lead after only 11 minutes. Ellis Iandolo put in a good cross from the left and, following Scott Twine’s superb acrobatic volley, Adebayo slotted in after a good save by the home keeper.

Swindon continued to dominate the first half but almost came unstuck when Vale master striker, Tom Pope, was left totally unmarked - but his free header flew just wide.

Vale made a double substitution at the break and began to come more into the game.

There were further injury problems for Town after an hour when the impressive Jak McCourt was forced to leave the field in considerable discomfort. Apparently, the dreaded Luke Norris curse had struck again, as the injury was diagnosed afterwards as a dislocated shoulder.

Although the home side pressed strongly, they were well contained by the Town defence, with Lawrence Vigouroux having relatively little to do.

With an incredible 10 minutes of injury time left to play, Port Vale threw everything at Swindon, with even goalkeeper Scott Brown playing centre forward for the final few minutes. The more physical Vale line up was proving to be a sizeable threat. Eventually Town threw on Olly Lancashire to bolster their defence, with the manager saying: “I had to put Olly on at the end because it was like “Land of the Giants”.

This was a much more encouraging and resilient display from the team, that must have been very pleasing to Wellens. Had they taken their chances, Swindon could easily have won by three goals. Three home games are up next, by the end of which we should have a much better idea as to what progress is being made.