Deveronvale moved into second place, one point behind league leaders Clach, with a fairly comfortable victory over visitors Fort William although the fast-improving West of Coasters did give the home side one or two hairy moments at wind-swept Princess Royal Park on Saturday afternoon.
Vale's re-instated strike force of McKenzie and Murray did the damage for the home side while Steve Dolan chipped in with his third of the season late on in the match, to make the score-line look a little more convincing.
The Lochaber side's counter, close to the half-time interval, was well-deserved for the hard work and endeavour they showed over the ninety minutes, even when the odds were stacked against them and they were three nil down and more or less out of the game.
Manager Gregg Caroll was forced into a second successive reshuffle for the homeside when Mark Chisholm failed to recover from an injury he picked up in midweek and this led to Barrie Stephen dropping back into a wide right role with Ian Murray replacing the in-form youngster upfront to reform his formidable partnership with Mike McKenzie.
Levi Stephen although recovered from his recent ankle injury found himself on the substitutes bench alongside Kidd, Campbell, Rae and Watt.

Vale kicked off against the strong wind but were soon on the offensive winning a first minute corner which was eventually cleared by the Fort defence. But the Banff side wasted no time in getting their noses in front in the match when after only three minutes Ian MURRAY headed them one-nil to the good.
Darren McAllister swung in a cross from the left to the unmarked "Molby" and the diminutive striker headed strongly and accurately past Campbell from 6 or 7 yards. Barrie Stephen fired high and over from close range after brilliantly eluding his marker inside the Fort penalty box before Campbell did well to save at the feet of Stephen as Vale poured forward looking for another.

Mike McKenzie then played in Paul Urquhart with a telling pass inside the 18-yard box but the midfielder slotted the ball just past the right-hand post with the goal at his mercy. Dolan tested the Fort keeper with a twenty yarder, which the ex-Hibs goalie saved comfortably. The visitors threatened for the first time after 20 minutes when MacInnes found room between Anderson and Dlugonski to break into the Vale box but Bremner was quickly out to smother the ball before the striker could reach it.

Mike MCKENZIE doubled Vale's advantage when he side footed into an empty net after being set up unselfishly by strike partner Ian Murray who had taken advantage of a mix up between Campbell and Cassidy, who had both gone for a loose ball inside their own box before squaring it to "Mikey".

The game was all over as a contest one minute later when previous scorer McKenzie returned the favour to his fellow attacker by laying on Vale's third on a plate for MURRAY who flicked the ball home from close range. Campbell had to be alert as Steve Dolan tried to get the better of the Fort number one for the second time after some delightful footwork between "Dippy" and Paul Urquhart released the defender into the penalty box but the keeper stood up well to block. Fort's goal had an amazing escape after 35 minutes when Murray and Halas chased a loose ball into the visitor's 18-yard box and although the defender won the race to the ball he crashed it off his own post with the ball falling kindly to safety for the Lochaber men. It was all Vale up until this moment as they looked to possibly match their nine goals scored in the corresponding fixture last season but to their credit Fort had other ideas and stung the Banffers with a goal at the other end. MacInnes eluded Scott Anderson's tackle before rounding both Bremner and Dlugonski and firing into the empty net for a well-taken strike for the visiting side.

Fort's half-time talk seemed to do them good as they came out a different side at the start of the second period and had shouts for a penalty within three minutes of the restart when MacInnes appeared to be obstructed by Dlugonski as attempted to reach a through ball, but referee Northcroft waved play on.

Dlugonski then fired a wind-assisted 35-yarder straight down the throat of John Campbell in the Fort goal as the Banffers tried to re-find their early form. Bremner had to look lively to save at his near post after another attempt on goal from the dangerous looking MacInnes.
Dolan's floated freekick from a dangerous position was blocked by the defensive wall and from the resulting corner Brown came close to pouncing from close range after Bamber had completely missed his clearance but the ball bounced just wide. Howden should have pulled a goal back after he muscled his way past Dolan but Bremner did well to stay on his feet and block with his legs, much to the relief of the "valley faithful" who were defying the cold wind to cheer on their side.

Murray missed a decent opportunity for his third of the afternoon when he fired a 20-yard freekick inches over Campbell's crossbar before Bremner parried another Fort chance this time from substitute Munro away for a corner. From the set piece Findlayson rose well to direct a hearer goalwards but Bremner saved comfortably. McKenzie might have done better with a close range header off a Murray centre but saw his effort go over the top under very little pressure from the Fort defence.
A great run from Barrie Stephen ended disappointingly when the winger sliced wide of the target after he had made the room for the strike. Murray then missed another snip for his hat trick when he headed wide from10-yards when quite honestly it looked easier to score!
As Vale started to pin-back their visitors Murray tried to latch onto a huge clearance from Bremner but Campbell read the wee striker's intensions and made the save comfortably. Steve DOLAN completed the scoring with a well-taken goal with only six minutes of time remaining when he showed some neat control inside the Fort penalty box before firing low past the helpless Campbell. Stuart Gray was stretchered off with only two minutes remaining after he appeared to fall awkwardly off the ball. Barrie Stephen was deservedly voted the sponsor's man-of-the-match.

Vale boss Gregg Carrol was fairly satisfied with his players' performance for the majority of the ninety minutes although thought they took their foot off the pedal at the start of the second half before finding their way back into the game. Carrol said, "We got off to flyer again and continued to dominate for the remainder of the half creating plenty of chances and taking three which I'm reasonably happy with. But we came out the for the second period and never really got going which was disappointing although give credit to Fort William who battled hard and made life as difficult as they could for us".
Carrol added, "the conditions made it difficult for good football today but I though both sets of players put on a decent show and I'm relatively pleased to pick up another three points which moves us up to second in the table".

Vale:
Bremner, Dolan, Gray, McAllister (Kidd 82), Dlugonski, Anderson, B. Stephen, Brown (L. Stephen 82), McKenzie (Campbell 82) Murray, Urquhart
Subs not used: Rae, Watt

Fort William
Campbell, Bamber, Edwards, Halas, Cassidy, Kerr, Howden, Findlayson, #MacInnes (Stewart 77), MacKenzie, Kelly (Munro 56)
Subs Not Used: MacDonald

Referee: M. Northcroft