Swindon Town were held at home by promotion-chasing Port Vale as the sides played out a 3-3 thriller on Saturday lunchtime.

It was an action-packed first that was going both ways as first Will Wright put Town ahead before Jaheim Headley and Lorent Tolaj turned it around and then Danny Butterworth saw both teams head in level.

After the excitement of the first half, both teams were able to tighten things up after the break and it took Cotterill’s wonder goal and a deflected strike for Tolaj to open it up.

Swindon’s winning run comes to an end but they are still undefeated in their last six League Two games and have lost just once in 11.

Ian Holloway was without Ollie Clarke and Gavin Kilkenny at the heart of his midfield due to their tight hamstrings, leading to Joel Cotterill and Aaron Drinan coming into the starting team.

Swindon had won four in a row and pushed themselves away from the relegation scrap largely by proving they were superior to those sides around them. It did not take long for Port Vale to demonstrate that they were not one of those teams.

Their sharp attacking play created chances in bulk and early, with Jack Bycroft first having to push Jayden Stockley’s header over the bar before a few frantic interventions on the edge of the box were required to prevent a clear strike on goal.

After 12 minutes Stockley held off Wright to flick the ball over the top. Three fluorescent shirts charged through like The Red Arrows with only Joel Cotterill back. Rakeem Harper charged with the ball, but Cotterill unbalanced him with his presence and as he entered the box he stumbled and gave away a free kick for Town.

But the defence was holding firm and at the other end, Harry Smith was drawing a lot of attention from the defenders, leading to plenty of advanced set pieces. From one of these which was initially defended, Town worked the ball out to Nnamdi Ofoborh and he was felled by Nathan Smith.

With no George Cox nor Kabongo Tshimanga on the pitch, the responsibility was Wright’s. Despite his glaring miss the last time he stepped up, he wandered up to the ball, sent Ben Amos the wrong way, and rolled it into the other corner.

But right as Swindon were starting to settle in, The Valiants reminded them why they are the ones competing at the top end of the table. Headley nipped down the side of the box and crashed a finish in at the near post to level it up.

Swindon continued to push ahead but were nearly caught on the break as Headley was again able to get away from Tunmise Sobowale. He cut the ball back to the wide Ben Garrity only for him to spoon his shot wide.

Then as Swindon again gave up space down the right, Ryan Croasdale ran into the room and clipped the ball across and Tolaj made no mistake with his close-range header.

But the goals kept coming in a frenetic end to the first half. Sobowale’s pass looked to be being shepherded out by Headley. But Aaron Drinan came steaming in to knock it away from him and open up space to cross. He played the ball into the avenue created by the defenders where Butterworth was waiting to smash home.

The second half began with both teams able to quell the raft of chances that we saw at the end of the first 45 minutes. But it was Swindon who were making much of the running in the half with Tom Nichols finding pockets of space and manipulating things.

Without too many clear-cut chances, it was something special to make up for it. After Butterworth had worked the ball back to Cotterill in space he took and touch and saw he had time. From 35 yards out and off to the left he leathered an arcing strike into the top corner.

Holloway had spoken about wanting to see Town assert their game onto a promotion contender and even leading one with 20 minutes to play, the plan did not change. Swindon continued to try and keep the ball forward and defend through their attacking exploits.

This meant that Vale had to start their attacks from deep and without Stockley after he had come off injured in the first half, they were not able to make that happen as often as they would have liked.

With ten minutes to go, Holloway turned to his cavalry as Joel McGregor, Joe Westley, and Paul Glatzel replaced the three behind Smith to keep the energy going.

But that couldn’t quite get them over the line as George Byers’ speculative effort was blocked into the path of Tolaj in space and he roofed it to snatch a point with three minutes to go.

STFC starting XI: Bycroft, Sobowale, Delaney, Wright, Ofoborh, Cotterill, Smith, Cain, Nichols, Butterworth, Drinan.

STFC substitutes: Barden, Glatzel, Tshimanga, Hall, Westley, McGregor, Chard.

PVFC starting XI: Amos, Heneghan, Hall, Smith, Garrity, Stockley, Croasdale, Tolaj, John, Headley, Harper.

PVFC substitutes: Byers, Curtis, Debrah, Hackford, Umolu, Broome, Hart.

Attendance: 7,606 (549 away).