Buckie and Vale served up an exciting ninety minutes of football at a very windy Victoria Park on Saturday entertaining the large crowd with a real ding-dong battle of wit and determination in this top of the table clash.
In the proverbial game of 'two halves' the home side had the bulk of the first forty-five creating a number of chances but only taking one of them the second period saw Vale control the majority of the play but failed to kill off their hosts with Richard Bowman especially in fine form between the sticks for the home side.
In the end a point a-piece was just about right in a game that could easily have finished four or five a-piece!
Kevin Will, the Thistle boss, will be the happier of the two managers at full time as his side looked dead and buried until recent signing John Coutts popped up to equalise right at the death with his first goal for his new club. On the other hand Gregg Carrol will be disappointed in the manner his side lost the late counter but on the positive front his side did keep their impressive undefeated away record intact and in the process gained another point in their quest for their first ever league championship.

Vale kicked off the contest facing a stiff breeze and took the initiative from the offset, forcing an early corner, which almost paid dividends. Brown met McAllister's set piece and found Murray in the six-yard box but the striker failed to connect with the awkward bouncing ball and the chance went a-begging. Moments later McKenzie almost caught-out Bowman at his near post but the keeper reacted quickly enough to divert the ball past his upright for another fruitless corner kick. Buckie then came into the game and almost took the lead when Coutts' lay off was fired inches over Thompson's bar by Shewan with the home defence posted missing. The home side did take the lead minutes later when Taylor fired Green's cushioned header high past Thompson from 10 yards with the visiting defence again nowhere to be seen.
Steve Dolan, making his 400th appearance for the Banffer's, tried his luck from the edge of the area as the play opened up in front of him but the defender choked his effort wide. Coutts fired over after good link up play with Green as the Vale defence struggled to cope with the movement of the two-pronged Thistle strike force.
Dolan did well to divert a through ball high into the air allowing Thompson to complete the clearance as Buckie again pinned the Vale defence back deep in their own half. At the other end Murray's snapshot cannoned off the foot of the post and straight into the arms of Bowman much to the delight of the noisy home support.
The game threatened to boil over as both sides scrapped for possession and referee Robertson was forced into booking Wilson, Taylor and Catto in the space of ten minutes. Chisholm looked to have a good chance to level the match but the ball just wouldn't fall for him as he tried to latch onto a Murray cross/come shot. The home side had the ball in the net on the half hour but the far-side linesman spotted an infringement and Vale breathed a sigh of relief.
Four minutes from the break the home side struck the woodwork when Shewan's header came back off the upright following a deep swung corner from Catto, but the visitor's goal survived and were happy to hear the referee's half time whistle which followed soon after.

The visitors were quick out of the traps in the second period and came within inches of equalising when Chisholm headed a Murray flick-on over the stranded Bowman only to see it bounce onto the crossbar before falling to safety on the wrong side of the goal. Chisholm then had a header scrambled clear by Lamberton following a McAllister corner as Vale turned up the heat on Thistle defence. McKenzie forced Bowman into fine stop when he unleashed a low drive from distance, which bounced awkwardly in front of the keeper.
The equaliser finally came for the visitors and it was that man McKenzie who turned provider when he cut inside two Buckie defenders before squaring the ball low across the face of goal to find the in-rushing Darren McALLISTER who poked the it home from close range. The home side went straight up the other end and were unlucky not to go back in front when somehow Taylor completely missed the ball at the far stick after good work by Coutts set up the relatively easy chance for his teammate.
At the other end Brown completely fluffed his shot 8 yards from goal when he was picked out by Dlugonski's knock down following another Vale corner. Chisholm did likewise minutes later when he was set-up by Stephen's cutback 5 or 6 yards out with an empty goal to aim at but somehow missed the ball completely when it looked easier to score. Bowman produced the save of the match when he brilliantly tipped a Brown point-blank header over his own cross bar when it looked a certain goal. Both sides made changes to their line-ups in an effort to win the match and in Vale's case it seemed to do the trick.
Gregg Carrol replaced Darren McAllister with Nigel Montgomery and switched Mark Chisholm to the right side of the midfield and on Vale's next attack down the right they took the lead. Chisholm's throw sent Mike McKENZIE free inside the penalty area and the in-form striker sent an unstoppable shot high past Bowman from a tight angle after wriggling clear of a couple of Buckie defenders en-route.
This sent the large travelling support into loud raptures as they rightly thought they had just witnessed the winning goal.
But just as what happened to the visitors last season at the same venue the home side grabbed a share of the points with a late equaliser. A hopeful ball into the Vale box was only half cleared and when it came back to Coutts he made no mistake driving a low shot past Thompson from 16 yards. Vale were stunned into action at the other end but ran out of time and they had to settle for a draw.

"Buckie had the best of the first forty-five and missed several chances so a draw was a fair result" said a satisfied Gregg Carrol after a pulsating ninety minutes of football. Carrol added " I'm generally happy enough with the performance of the team but disappointed in the manner in which we lost the second goal".

Vale:
Thompson, Dolan, Kinghorn, Chisholm, Dlugonski, Anderson, McAllister (Montgomery 78), L. Stephen, McKenzie, Murray, Brown
Subs not used: Taylor, Kidd, Pressley, Speirs
Buckie:
Bowman, Pirie, Lamberton, Slater, #Wilson (Gairns 72), #Catto, Shewan, #Taylor, Green (Wood 79), Coutts, MacDonald (Craik 79)
Subs not used: Davidson, Milne