Swansea City won away from home for the first time under Vitor Matos as Zan Vipotnik's header secured victory over fellow Championship strugglers Oxford United.

Slovenia international Vipotnik scored for the third time in four games after only 14 minutes and Swansea held on relatively comfortably against the managerless U's.

Swansea's triumph was their first on the road since September, and brought a timely end to a run of five straight away defeats.

The Welsh side climb to 18th, seven points clear of the bottom three, after a fourth victory in their past six matches.

But Oxford slip back into the relegation places having failed to build on the rousing victory over Southampton in their first game following the sacking of Gary Rowett.

Swansea's goal was a reward for their more enterprising start, though it needed a half-cleared set-piece to bring the breakthrough in a game of few chances.

When Josh Tymon whipped the ball back into the area from the left flank, Vipotnik found space to nod beyond the helpless Oxford goalkeeper Jamie Cumming for his 12th goal of the season.

Eom Jisung's 20-yard effort was then beaten away by Cumming, while opposite number Lawrence Vigouroux was only required to smother Brian de Keersmaecker's long-range drive despite Oxford improving as the first period went on.

Swansea had opportunities to settle what was a scrappy contest after the break, with Melker Widell's goalbound shot blocked before substitute Goncalo Franco dragged wastefully wide.

But there were few signs of a revival from interim boss Craig Short's Oxford, who failed to reach the heights of their display against the Saints.

After De Keersmaecker's sweet free-kick curled narrowly wide of the post, Swansea head coach Matos could celebrate a first success on the road at the fourth attempt.

This was the second meeting of these clubs this month, with Matos claiming the first win of his Swansea reign when Oxford travelled to Wales just over three weeks ago.

Swansea's 2-0 success that day was part of a run of one win in just 10 matches which saw Rowett lose his job at the Kassam Stadium two days before Christmas.

Short's fourth stint as caretaker boss began with the morale-boosting home victory over Southampton, which ended a four-game winless run.

But this was a dispiriting night which may sharpen the Oxford hierarchy's focus as they seek Rowett's permanent successor.

The mood is brighter for Swansea who, while by no means out of the relegation picture, are showing promising signs.

Oxford interim boss Craig Short:

"I am very disappointed. I haven't had a pop at the lads in there. Maybe after 20 minutes I was thinking, should I have made changes?

"The physical output they gave me on Boxing Day was the highest of the season. You start thinking, 'do you freshen it up?'. But I wanted to give the lads who did so well on Boxing Day the confidence to go and do it again.

"I knew it was going to be a difficult game. We were playing against Swansea who keep the ball well and are aggressive with their press.

"We never seemed to have that composure. When we did turn the ball over first half, we didn't take care of that final pass and we seemed to lose a bit of confidence again.

"We got a lift from Southampton but today we just couldn't get going."

Swansea head coach Vitor Matos:

"It was good, important - right mentality, right desire.

"It was a massive win. There's still a lot to improve but the foundations are there and that's really pleasing to see.

"A word to the fans who were incredible. The support when we really need it, that's what we are going to need with this number of games.

"I think the concentration of the team was brilliant. There were moments where we struggled at the end of the first half.

"But second half we did really well in terms of defending and then controlling and trying to have moments with the ball, which we had."