SWINDON Town saw a second win of the season snatched from them in the strangest of circumstances as a Sam Foley penalty, deep into injury time, handed Port Vale a point in a 2-2 draw.

Anton Rodgers earned a place in the starting line-up, after his last gasp heroics to snatch a draw at Bury, and paid back the faith shown in him inside the quarter-hour mark as he played in Fabien Robert for the opener.

Rodgers was then involved in Port Vale’s equaliser, as he gave the ball away to Louis Dodds who played in Uche Ikpeazu to fire the visitors back level.

Twenty-one minutes into an uninspiring second half Rodgers was a ray of light as he found space in behind the Vale defence to make amends for his previous mistake.

Swindon looked to have done enough to take all three points, but after a corner in the third minute of added time referee Brendan Malone pointed to the spot to the confusion of many in the County Ground.

Foley stepped up to the spot, and unlike those in the Town’s opening two league games, made no mistake to secure the point.

Swindon Town made two changes to the team that started at Bury, as Robert came in to replace the injured Jonathan Obika.

Rodgers replaced Kevin Stewart, with Miles Storey being handed a place on the bench to deal with Town’s striker shortage.

Meanwhile, Port Vale manager Rob Page made one change, bringing Sam Kelly in for the injured Enoch Andoh.

Both teams took a while to get into the game, with Rodgers looking to pull the strings at the base of midfield, as Mark Cooper opted for a 4-3-3 formation.

Rodgers justified his place in the starting line-up inside 13 minutes as he picked the ball up on the edge of the box.

Despite calls to shoot from the Town faithful, having seen his exploits from the a dead-ball, the 22-year-old showed a mature head to pick out a perfect pass with the outside of his boot to find Robert making a well timed dart behind the Port Vale back four.

The Frenchman took a touch to get the ball out of his feet before calmly slotting into the opposite corner to put Town ahead.

However, less than seven minutes later Rodgers went from hero to villain as his missed placed pass in the middle of the park led to Port Vale’s equaliser.

The midfielder gifted the ball away to Dodds, who played in loan striker Ikpeazu.

The big centre forward, on loan from Watford, dodged a tackle from Raphael Branco before using h his weight to keep Jordan Turnbull at bay before sliding the ball past Lawrence Vigouroux.

Swindon remained on top in a half of few chances from either side as Town struggled to find that final ball into the box to open up a stubborn Vale defence.

With little to excite in the way of chances on the pitch, Vale forward soon became the pantomime villain of the piece as his theatrics failed to win over the Town fans.

The second half began much like the first half ended, barring the theatrics, and it was at risk of sending the fans to sleep as both sides looked void of ideas to break the other defence down.

That changed on the 66th minute when Rodgers was able to repent for his earlier mistake.

A pass from Nathan Byrne, who had not had his best evening in a Town shirt, ricocheted its way through the Vale back line to find Rodgers in space, before he tucked the ball under the body of Alnwick.

Page opted to ring the changes with 20 minutes to go as he brought on strikers AJ Leitch-Smith and Colin Daniel to try and push for a second equaliser.

However, Swindon defended resolutely and looked to have seen the game out until a Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill block saw Town concede a corner deep into added time.

With the left-back on the floor needing treatment, the corner was taken quickly and amongst the confusion the referee pointed to the penalty spot.

After much protestation from the Town defence, Foley stepped up and kept his cool to strike the ball down the centre of the goal to secure the point for the visitors.

SWINDON TOWN: Vigouroux, Thompson (C) Branco, Turnbull, Ormonde-Ottewill, Williams, Kasim, Rodgers (Traore 81’), Byrne, Robert (Stewart 89’), Smith

Unused subs: Belford, Barry, Brophy, Marshall, Storey

PORT VALE: Alnwick, Purkiss, Duffy, Dickinson, Ikpeazu (Daniel 73’), Dodds (Leitch-Smith 73’), Foley, Kelly (Lloyd 73’), Moore, Inniss, Grant

Unused subs: Johnson, Birchall, Streete, Brown Referee: Brendan Malone

Attendance: 7,026 (249 away)