Marc Richards scored as Port Vale ended a three-game winless run with a 2-1 victory at Torquay.

Striker secures first win in three League Two games

Marc Richards scored the decisive goal as Port Vale ended a three-game winless run in League Two with a 2-1 victory at Torquay United. Vale took the lead in the 42nd minute through Lewis Haldane and although United responded after the break through Elliot Benyon, striker Marc Richards sealed the points for the visitors with a close-range finish. The first half was hardly a classic but the deadlock was broken when a Richards free-kick on the edge of the Gulls' box fell kindly for Haldane and he stabbed the loose ball past keeper Michael Poke from 10 yards. Torquay had been in the ascendancy until then with debutant Ashley Barnes, skipper Nicky Wroe and winger Jake Thomson all going close, although Vale striker Craig Davies did force Poke into a fingertip save. The Gulls got their reward for a positive start to the second half when substitute Benyon converted Chris Zebroski's stab across goal in the 58th minute but they could not hold on. Nine minutes later, Haldane's free-kick from the left flank found substitute Louis Dodds and he drove the ball back across goal for Richards to turn it in from point-black range.