Vale spanked visitors Fort William for the second time this season with an emphatic nine-goal victory over the Lochaber side whilst passing the hundred competitive goal mark for the campaign in real style.
Mark Chisholm got them off to a flying start with an early counter and when the visitors found themselves down to ten men soon after, the floodgates simply opened up for the Banff side. The final score line could so easily have been well into double figures on another day but Vale boss Gregg Carrol has to more than happy with the way his side totally destroyed their opponents with wave after wave of attack while dictating the play from start to finish.
Robbie Brown and Ian Murray blotted Vale's copybook with a yellow card a-piece, which will see the latter suspended for accumulating too many bookings over the season.
Fort had travelled to Banff with a much-depleted squad due to the suspension of Willie Edwards & Stuart Vance. This coupled with injuries to keeper John Campbell and the highly rated Grant Davidson left them forced to include manager Danny Conlon among the substitutes as they tackled the buoyant league leaders. Carrol on the other hand had more or less a full squad to choose from, electing to give Terry Kidd his first start in the middle of the park in place of Nigel Montgomery, who dropped to the bench.

Vale kicked off the match into the blustery wind and were soon on the offensive but Matty Kinghorn's ambitious effort failed to threaten the Fort goal but did give the visitors a taste of what was to follow. On their next serious attack Darren McAllister fired over an inviting cross to the back stick and Mark CHISHOLM rose to head powerfully past MacDonald from close range with a real textbook "Chis' goal. Two minutes later Chisholm again sneaked in at the far post but this time he failed to keep his effort down and the ball sailed over. An off-the-ball bust-up between Edwards and Murray saw the Fort defender dismissed for appearing to strike the Vale player, however Murray did see yellow for his part in the fracas which sent him over the disciplinary point barrier and a suspension now looms over the Scot-ads Highland League Top-scorer.
From the resulting free kick Anderson came close with a downward header, which sneaked narrowly past the post with MacDonald firmly rooted to the spot. The visitor's goal had an amazing escape on the quarter hour mark when firstly Chisholm then Kidd both missed from inside the six-yard box after Murray's effort came back off the upright and ran across the face of goal. MacDonald rushed from his goal-line to thwart Chisholm as the midfielder scampered clear of the Fort back-four but could do little moments later to prevent his side falling further behind.
Mike McKENZIE, who has just signed a three-year extension to current contract, latched onto a McAllister through ball before blasting it high past MacDonald with the visitors appealing in vain for the offside flag. Mike McKENZIE made it One Hundred goals for the Vale so far this season with another excellent finish three minutes later when he calmly slotted the ball past MacDonald from just inside the penalty box with again the visiting defence posted missing.
N. MacDonald forced Thompson into a rare save with a 20-yard drive as Fort went on their first serious, and only, attack of the opening forty-five. Chisholm's drive at the other end flew inches over before the Banffer's increased their lead. Brown picked out the in-rushing Dolan with an excellently weighted pass and the defender did likewise when his low cross was inch perfect for Ian MURRAY to net his 37th goal of the season from his favourite 8-yard mark!
Brown then tried his luck when he launched himself at a McAllister corner kick but the ball sailed over, off the red-haired midfielder's head. Chisholm completely missed in front of goal following a Kinghorn low-fizzed cross in what turned out to be the last piece of action in an entertaining but very one-sided first period.

The wind seemed to get stronger as the second half started but not much else changed as Vale again began to control things from back to front with wave after wave of all out assault on the Fort goal. The ten-men visitors were camped on their 18-yard box encouraging the home side to come at them and MacDonald did well to save Kidd's wind-assisted effort at the second attempt under pressure from the ever-alert Murray.
The visitors couldn't hold out much longer and the inevitable happened with only seven minutes of the half played when sponsor's Man-of-the-Match Matty KINGHORN scored with a low shot from the edge of the area, which found the net through a ruck of players before beating the helpless MacDonald. Mark CHISHOLM netted his second four minutes later when he picked up a pass from the hard-working Darren McAllister before blasting it high into the net from 15-yards. Vale were in seventh heaven two minutes later when Steve DOLAN fired an unstoppable strike into the far corner past a stunned MacDonald to give him his first goal in his Testimonial Season.
Gregg Carrol made a couple of changes when he brought on Nigel Montgomery and Levi Stephen for Scott Anderson and Robbie Brown respectively.
Substitute Stephen made an immediate impact when his run into the Fort box was ended illegally by Cairns, which left referee Emslie with no choice but to point to the spot. Ian MURRAY sent MacDonald the wrong way from the resulting penalty to net his 38th goal of the season. Mike McKenzie's well-struck free kick looked to be giving the striker his hat trick until MacDonald expertly diverted the ball for a fruitless corner.
Dolan's free kick was similarly dealt with by the Fort defence but again the home side failed to find any joy from the resultant corner kick. Mike McKenzie came close again to adding to his tally but this time his rasping drive flew inches over the top. Substitute Ritchie TAYLOR completed the scoring when McKenzie unselfishly set-up the young striker inside the penalty box allowing him the time and space to pick his spot low into the bottom corner of the net.
Five minutes later Taylor struck the foot of the post from close range after a knock down from Chisholm following an excellent deep cross from Steve Dolan. Kidd's deflected long-ranger cannoned off the upright with MacDonald well-beaten before Dlugonski tried to get in on the act with another shot from distance which was fisted clear by the hard-worked Fort keeper.
Thompson had a relatively easy save to make at the other end as Fort went on their second raid up field looking for a late consolation, which they barely deserved. Dolan seemed to take a sore one in the back and had to leave the field, which meant that both sides ended the game with ten, as Vale had already used up all three allocated substitutes.
This didn't stop the Banffer's dominating proceedings however and Montgomery's fired cross was headed inches over by Murray in what would have been an excellent way to finish the game for the home side. The last chance of the match also fell to Murray but his audacious acrobatic kick went agonisingly past the upright much to the disappointment of the large and perhaps greedy crowd who were desperate for another ten against a totally distraught Fort side.

Vale boss Gregg Carrol was relatively pleased with his side's overall performance but was slightly critical of their first half performance when he said "I thought we were a bit overconfident during the first forty-five and told them so at the interval but our work-rate improved in the second half and we ran out comfortable winners against a much weakened Fort William eleven ".
Vale:
Thompson, Dolan, Kinghorn, Chisholm, Dlugonski, Anderson (Montgomery 60), McAllister (Taylor 70), #Brown (L. Stephen 60), McKenzie, #Murray
Subs not used: B. Stephen, Speirs,
Fort William:
M. MacDonald, ##Edwards, Kelly, P. MacDonald, #Cairns, Cassidy, Howden, Drummond, N. MacDonald, Cameron, Steele (Kerr 63)
Subs not used: Conlon, Haggerty, MacCormick