Deveronvale finally put to bed their twenty-year long Christie Park jinx when they recorded a victory for the first time since August 1983 on Wednesday evening and in doing so completed the remarkable feat of remaining undefeated away from home throughout the whole season in the Scot Ads Highland league.
Trailing to a Lorne McPherson first half counter Ian Murray's 45th and 46th's of the campaign saw Vale snatch the points in a competitive ninety minutes of football played on a fiery surface and under a bright full moon, which may well have had a hand in aiding the Banffers exorcise the much publicised Strathbogie hoodoo.
The home side found themselves missing a few key players for the tussle with the newly crowned champions but still managed to field an eleven with plenty of experience and full of energy which was no more epitomised than by the tireless running and hard graft put in by young striker Lorne McPherson, who took his goal well and was extremely unlucky not to add to it on the night.
Vale were again without the injured Mike McKenzie although the striker did make it to the bench alongside the rested Robbie Brown, who was carrying a slight knock from Saturday. Fraser Speirs made a rare start between the sticks for the Banff side deputising for the injured Barry Thompson, who has a groin strain.

A sizeable travelling support made the short journey to Huntly and gave their players plenty of noisy encouragement throughout the ninety minutes of play, as they have done for the majority of the season.
Speirs was called into action early on and looked slightly nervous as he dropped a bread and butter Chris Henderson cross but the stand-in keeper was quick to react to his error and smothered the ball before Low could pounce. Murray fired wide from 20-yards after creating some room for himself at the edge of the area before Dolan was unlucky to see his drive just clear Robb's crossbar after a quickly taken Stephen free kick set up the opening.
Another clever ball from Stephen released Murray through on Robb but the goal machine slipped at the vital moment and the chance went a-begging. Ex-Vale defender Davie Henderson was forced to slice clear inside his own 6-yard box, which resulted in giving the visitor's their first corner of the match. McAllister's flag-kick was met on the volley by Pressley 10-yards from goal but the ball smashed off Ritchie Taylor en route and fell to safety. Dolan's awkward cross had Robb beaten at his far stick but Henry got back in the nick of time to head clear before the ball sailed into the unguarded net.
Speirs pulled off a brilliant point-blank save to deny Guild the opener after the midfielder had found room in behind the Vale back line and headed strongly towards the young keeper. As the game flowed to the other end Dolan's cross from the left picked out Taylor in a good position but the big striker elected to volley rather than head the enticing delivery and in the end made somewhat of a meal of it by slicing high and wide.
The home side took the lead after 35 minutes when Dlugonski's cushioned back-header to Speirs didn't carry enough pace and the alert McPherson took full advantage of the defender's error when he pounced to fire the ball past the helpless Vale keeper from 12-yards.
Five minutes from the interval Robb was forced into his only direct save of the half when he did well to block Darren McAllister's drive with his feet as the winger nipped in behind the Huntly defence looking to get his side back on level terms.

The homesters had a let off seconds after the restart when Robb failed to connect with a long through ball but Murray failed to take advantage and between them Small and Henderson cleared the danger. Stand-in keeper Robb was pushing his luck on Vale's next attack when he completely misjudged the bounce of the ball but as the ball sailed over his head Henry was in the perfect position to save his keeper's blushes and clear the ball to safety.
Murray took a tumble inside the Huntly 18-yard box as he chased a through ball with Henderson but referee Clark quite rightly waved play on. The visitors pulled level following their first corner of the second period. McAllister's cross to the back post was driven back into the mixer by Chisholm and MURRAY headed home from inside the six yard box although it wasn't very clear if Taylor got the last touch or not, before the ball landed up in the net.
Huntly weren't to be denied and went right back up the other end and came very close to restoring their lead. An excellent diagonal ball caught out the Vale central defence allowing McPherson a clear shot on goal but although the busy wee striker had the beating of Speirs Matty Kinghorn brilliantly popped up on the goal line to head clear.
McAllister had a decent chance to put the visitors ahead but Robb saved with his legs and seconds later the keeper did likewise as Murray bore down on the keeper inside the penalty box. Barrie Stephen replaced Ritchie Taylor and the substitute was soon in the thick of things twisting and turning the Huntly defence probing for an opening and looking to create the winner.
Just as time looked to be running out for the Banffers a neat turn by the aforementioned Stephen inside the Huntly box resulted in Small mistiming his tackle on the tricky striker leaving referee Clark with no other option than to point to the spot. Ian MURRAY made an immaculate job as he slotted the ball low into the corner of the net to, at last, put an end to the twenty-year saga.

A pleased Gregg Carrol said after the game "That was a tough match and all credit to Huntly as they really worked us hard for the three points. I took a bit of a gamble late on and sometimes these things work and sometimes they don't but putting on Barrie and Nigel meant leaving us slightly short at the back but it won us the match and puts the Christie Park thing to bed. We can now enjoy the weekend off before our thoughts turn to Saturday week".

Vale:
Speirs, Dolan, Kinghorn, Chisholm, Dlugonski, Anderson, McAllister (Montgomery 75), Pressley, Taylor (#B. Stephen 64), #Murray, L. Stephen
Subs not used: Brown, Kidd, McKenzie


Huntly:
Robb, Garioch (Campbell 67), #Henry, Copeland (Gillies 63), D. Henderson (McGregor 80), Small, C. Henderson, Guild, Low, McPherson, Farmer
Referee: D. Clark