Damage in the Box!: DEVERONVALE (Princess Royal Park)

Welcome back to another season of my ramblings! This year I have opted to move away from facebook notes and start maintaining a proper blog. I did try to do this last season but only got three games in before giving up. Hopefully I can keep it going this time and hopefully more people will be get to read it. This is my first attempt at this sort of thing, so please be gentle with me, but any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

As has been the case for the last few years, the season gets underway in Scotland earlier than anywhere else so it was another trip north of the border. The league challenge cup (this season sponsored by a pawnbroker) is usually first off the mark and once the draw was made back in June there was only one choice of destination for me.

The league decided to invite the top two Highland league teams (Buckie Thistle and Deveronvale) into the competition and Deveronvale were lucky enough to get a home tie, versus Stirling Albion, so it was 427 miles north to Banff I headed.

What didn't help matters is that it was a 1pm kick off as the Vale goalkeeper was getting married, so the Bino's agreed to an earlier kick off to allow the rest of his team-mates to get to the evening reception. This meant an even earlier start!

Luckily I was there in good time and even had the luxury of being able to visit the local GBG entry, The Ship Inn, for a quick half. For all you film buffs out there, the bar scenes of the 1983 film 'Local Hero' were shot in this pub and whilst I was there some fans entered the premises and had their picture taken behind the bar. Some people are really geeky!!!!!

There was a reasonable attendance of around 400 at Princess Park, but that was not as many as I anticipated. There was a subdued atmosphere as the game got underway and the home crowd never really found their voice. In absolutely freezing, windy conditions (I was wrapped up as if it was winter) the home side made the early runnings and hit the post after 10 minutes but once Lewis Bonar scored from the penalty spot after 20 minutes, the result was never going to be in doubt.

Bonar added his and Stirling's second just after the break before Mike Mckenzie blasted home a thunderbolt free-kick to bring Vale back into the game. However this didn't prove to be the catalyst and soon after Gavin McPherson added the Bino's third to comfortably put them into the next round.