91Èȱ¬

Andy Williams headed his 15th goal of the season as Swindon climbed back up to second in League One.

Williams, the Robins' top scorer, converted Nathan Byrne's right-wing cross 11 minutes into the second half.

Vale keeper Chris Neal had stopped a first-half shot from Byrne with his chest, while Swindon keeper Wes Foderingham denied Louis Dodds.

Foderingham made a superb save to stop Adam Yates scoring for Vale early in the second half before Williams' goal.

The Swindon keeper was again called on when Yates fired towards the near post from close range after former Swindon midfielder Mark Marshall had set up an attack.

Jon Obika got the ball in the Port Vale net soon afterwards, only to have his close-range header ruled out for offside.

But promotion-chasing Swindon, who had dropped out of the top two following a 1-0 defeat at home to Doncaster on 20 December, were not to be denied.

Williams's header secured a second straight Christmas victory for Mark Cooper's side following a 4-1 win at Walsall on Boxing Day.

Swindon manager Mark Cooper told 91Èȱ¬ Wiltshire:

"We should have been a lot more comfortable. We shouldn't have been only 1-0 ahead.

"We need to be a bit more clinical, when we have chances to kill the game off.

"We're only halfway in the season - there's 23 games to go and an awful lot of football to be played.

"We've just got to keep going."