Swindon boss Ian Holloway voiced his pride at going toe-to-toe with a top team as he eyes an unlikely play-off push after a 3-3 draw with Port Vale at the County Ground.
Holloway has turned things around for The Robins since replacing Mark Kennedy at the Wiltshire club and they looked to have won it with a wonder strike by Swansea loanee Joel Cotterill.
But Lorent Tolaj hit his second goal of the game with three minutes left to rescue a point for the Valiants.
Holloway, who won manager of the month after four straight wins against relegation rivals, is now challenging his side to aim much higher.
He said: “I’m really proud of the performance. I would have paid to watch it. We went stride for stride with a good team. We’ve come a long way.
“The way it fell to them in the end is bitterly disappointing. This means the world to all our players. You could tell that now and they were hurting.
“But there’s too many good things for me to think about, rather than end on a sad note.
“We scored a brilliant goal. In my whole career I haven’t seen one go in as clean as that.”
Nathan Smith shoved over Nnamdi Ofoborh in the box after 20 minutes and Town captain Will Wright coolly stuck away the resulting penalty.
Jaheim Headley equalised after 31 minutes before Tolaj headed Port Vale ahead from Ryan Croasdale‘s cross.
Danny Butterworth levelled in first-half stoppage-time before Cotterill arrowed a shot into the top corner in the 63rd minute but Tolaj levelled with three minutes left by blasting a loose ball into the roof of the net.
Valiants boss Darren Moore blamed defensive sloppiness for a disappointing result.
He said: “We were certainly in charitable form today in terms of giving the goals away, because usually that’s not us.
“Our bedrock is our defensive work, strong and clean. And for some reason today, it was just moments of lapse of concentration which all led to all three goals.
“We don’t usually give goals like that away from home, certainly to give three away.”
Moore said he expected a tough game given Swindon’s surging form but was still disappointed.
He said: “I certainly didn’t think I’d be leaving here with a point. I’d have probably been hoping to leave with three points. So there’s disappointment with the result.
“That’s a credit to Ian creating something here. It was a difficult game but we’ve managed to come out with something.”
