Luton arrived at Vale Park hoping to boost their play-off push with three points against a Valiants side that had only collected one point from their last three game.
Both teams looked sprightly in the opening ten minutes with Vale coming closest when Liam Burns cross found Stephen McPhee perfectly at six yards but his looping header bounced back off the bar.
Vale came closer still on 26 minutes when McPhee played it into the right side of the box for the arriving Steve Rowland but the flag was raised just after his powerhouse shot rebounded in off Mark Ovendale's right post.
Young gun Billy Paynter also failed to take a chance for the home side just before the break when McPhee laid it off on the right of the box but Paynter's strike flew wide of Ovendale's right post from 12 yards.
Brian Horton's men looked to have the advantage after 45 minutes with a quick tempo aiding Vale's attack but Luton were not slacking and seemed dangerous to grab a goal.
Luton came out of the traps quickly in the 49th minute when Kevin Nicholls corner on the right found the head of Tony Thorpe at the back post who rose above the defence to nod the ball home from four yards.
Any chance of a comeback was killed when on 76 minutes a foul by Ian Brightwell on Thorpe gave Luton a penalty that Nicholls despatched into Mark Goodlad's bottom right corner.
Valiants did manage to pull back a goal but it came with just three minutes to play, when the ball fell for Mark Boyd on the edge of the area and his volley bounced over Ovendale and into the back of the net.
Luton boss Joe Kinnear seemed quietly pleased with his team's performance, saying: "I was not too happy with the first half, we had to be more positive and I felt putting three up front would help us get forward.
"We got a good result but they did not make it easy."