Vale's large travelling army of seasonally dressed supporters witnessed their sides' version of the film classic "The Great Escape" at Mackessock Park when they came from two down to snatch a draw with a late late equaliser through veteran Nigel Montgomery.
The home team had added to their half time lead with a second strike through Jamie Miller before the Banffers clawed themselves back into the game with a counter by Mike McKenzie before Monty provided Vale with some festive cheer.
In one of only three games in the Scot Ads Highland league, which survived the frosty weather, Mackessock Park looked barely playable with both sets of players finding the surface very tricky to keep their feet never mind play any kind of football.

The visitors went on the attack from the offset but Montgomery's drive from just outside the box didn't trouble Strong in the Rothes goal.
Vale then won a free kick inside the penalty area when Strong picked up Esson's back pass but the keeper redeemed himself with a fine tip over the bar from McKenzie's fierce strike from the resultant set-piece. Smith had the home side's first attempt at goal but his long-range effort was way too high to trouble Thompson. Murray thought he had given the visitors the lead on the quarter hour mark but the stand-side linesman had his flag raised for offside as soon as the pint-size striker knocked the loose ball over the line after Strong had parried Urquhart's hooked shot.
Vale then had strong appeals for a penalty when Esson looked to have handled Dolan's centre but referee Clark waved play on claiming the defender had used his chest rather than his arm when clearing the ball. Minutes later Murray hit the deck in the Rothes box but again the referee saw nothing amiss and play continued. Strong pulled off a decent save from Montgomery when the midfielder broke into the box before attempting to curl ball over the home keeper. McKenzie was next to try his luck with a snap shot from 20 yards but again Strong was equal to it pulling off a fine one handed save to keep his goal intact.
On the stroke of the half time whistle the Speysiders shocked their top of the table visitors when they took the lead with their first strike on target. Stephen gave the ball away to Smith and his cross was fired towards goal by Ord. Thompson did manage to get a good hand to the ball but only succeeded in pushing it into the roof of the net.

The home side took a lot of encouragement from their lead and came out a different team in the second period stroking the ball about confidently and pinning Vale back into their own half without really threatening Thompson's goal.
At the other end McAllister had a half chance but drove wide of Strong's left-hand post when picked out by Dolan's deep cross. Rothes went into two-goal lead minutes later with the Vale defence 'all at sea'. Ord was allowed far too much space and time before he drove a low shot goal wards. This time Thompson did get a decent hand to the ball but could only parry it across the face of goal and the lurking Miller was on hand to knock it home leaving the 'table toppers' with a real uphill struggle to get anything out of the game. Vale then made a change replacing McAllister with Taylor as Gregg Carrol went all-out looking to take something from the remainder of the match. The substitution was an inspired one as within four minutes Vale were back in it. Montgomery broke into the Rothes penalty before sweeping the ball into the path of Mike MCKENZIE and the striker's low drive went under the body of Strong and, at last, into the back of the net.
Murray saw his overhead kick go just wide before Stephen's drive was touched over the top by Strong, whose goal was now under tremendous pressure from the visitor's three-pronged strike force. Vale deservedly equalised with only four minutes remaining and it was thanks to referee Clark who allowed Murray to re-take his free kick, which was saved by Strong, because he was not ready. Murray's second effort beat Strong but the ball came back off the face of the cross bar and after a fierce scramble inside the six-yard box MONTGOMERY managed to stab home to send the large Vale contingent into the joys of Christmas. Deep into injury time Murray had a chance to win the game when Vale were awarded another free kick on the edge of the area but the 'dead-ball expert' fired straight at the defensive wall leaving both sides with a share of the spoils.

Vale:
Thompson, Dolan, Kinghorn, Urquhart, Dlugonski, Anderson, McAllister (Taylor 72), L. Stephen, McKenzie (Chisholm 87), Murray, Montgomery
Subs not used: B. Stephen, Speirs
Rothes:
Strong, Shortreed, Forbes, Esson, Grant, C. Smith, #R. Smith, #Bain, #Ord (Hamilton 74), Mathieson, Miller
Subs: Cruikshanks, Yule, Cree, Watt
Referee: D. Clark

Although Vale are now eleven points clear at the top of the table boss Gregg Carrol wasn't too pleased with his players saying "We need to treat every team with the respect that we gave Keith last week and be better focused when we play the so called weaker teams. I was however pleased with the fighting spirit shown by the players and I'm sure if we had played for another ten minutes or so we would have won it!"