Vale had a convincing and morale-boosting six-nil victory over lowly Rangers in a quickly re-arranged fixture and in front of one of the lowest crowds seen at Princess Royal Park for quite a number of years. The fans, who decided to give the game a wide berth, missed out in a vintage second half performance from Gregg Carrol's men in a match, which they more or less dominated from start to finish.
First half goals from Mark Chisholm, Jamie Watt and the sublime Mike McKenzie had Vale on easy street and two further counters from sponsor's man-of-the-match Jamie Watt and one more McKenzie saw the points going to the Banff club which lifted them into the top half of the table for the first time this season.
Steve Dolan and Robbie Brown returned to Gregg Carrol's squad for the match but both found themselves on the bench as the manager elected to go with the same eleven who lost at Inverurie the previous weekend with the exception of Graeme Cadger who served a one match suspension and his place was taken by Jamie Watt.

A strong wind greeted the players as they went to battle both looking for the three points for a similar confidence booster. Bryan Dlugonski's dash down the left ended disappointingly with the ball landing out of play before MacDonald tried an audacious lob from distance which Bremner used all his huge frame to pluck to safety from under his crossbar. Vale took the lead with eight minutes played when Mike McKenzie's clever freekick wrong footed the Rangers defence allowing Dlugonski to cross low into the six-yard box and although the waiting Paul Urquhart's effort was blocked initially Mark CHISHOLM was on hand to score from close range for his second of the season. A Jamie Watt snap shot caused some panic in the 18-yard box before it was eventually cleared unorthodoxly by MacKenzie who knocked the ball straight across his own goalmouth and out for a fruitless corner kick. WATT did better on the quarter hour mark when he at long last got himself on the score sheet with a close range header at the far post after a stand-up from strike partner Mike McKenzie took a kind deflection into the wee striker's path.

Stuart Gray almost added a third for the home side when he met a McKenzie cut back only to be denied by a timely block by Calder. The lively Justin Rogers came close to latching onto a cross-field pass but the young striker had just strayed into an offside position behind the Vale defence. The unusually low crowd were treated to a superb piece of individualism of the highest order three minutes from the interval when Mike MCKENZIE made a goal out of nothing to put Vale three up. As "Mikee" dribbled his way into the box nothing much looked on but a quick look spotted Michael Rae slightly off his line and the next the thing the keeper knew, the ball was sailing over him and into the far corner of the net with a delightful lob from the tightest of angles.

To their credit went straight up the other end and created a decent opportunity of their own by Ross Bremner came to his defences rescue with a good stop with his legs to deny Duncanson and keep vale on track for the three points.

An early Vale corner set the president for the second half with Mark "Rusty" Smith coming very close to scoring another for Gregg Carrol's side.
Smith then drove over from the edge of the box before Rogers volleyed a fisted Bremner clearance harmlessly wide.
Michael Rae just got his fingertips to turn a Jamie Watt drive around his right-hand post to deny the striker a second.
Watt then saw his point blank header come back off the face of MacDonald en route to goal as Vale camped themselves deep inside the Rangers half.
Vale's pressure finally paid off when Jamie WATT added a fourth for his side when he slammed the ball home from 3 or 4 yards after a goalmouth scramble, which saw the visitors struggle to clear. Rae pulled off a fine save to deny an unlikely scorer in Stuart Gray when the defender met Dlugonski's bye-line cross into the 6-yard box.

Rogers should have pulled a goal back for the Sutherland side when gifted an opportunity well inside the Vale penalty box but the youngster fired disappointingly wide with only Bremner to beat.
Mark Slater then collided with Rogers and had to leave the field to receive treatment but this failed to stop the ten men from adding to their goal tally.
Bremner's long clearance was pounced on by Jamie Watt and although the striker's delicate dink over Rae looked to be heading into the net Mike MCKENZIE was on hand to make sure and score his second of the afternoon.

Watt did get his hat trick three minutes later when MacDonald was rather harshly adjudged to have pulled down the diminutive striker as he looked to pull the trigger from close range. WATT stepped up to complete his third goal of the game and the season with a well-struck penalty into the bottom corner. McKenzie and Smith both passed up good opportunities to make Brora's day even worse but Rae saved in both cases to keep the score to six.

Substitute Murray hooked a decent chance over from close range in the last chance of the afternoon.

"That's more like it; great determination, good tempo and a high work-rate and in the end a well deserved end product" said a much happier Gregg Carrol after the result move Vale a couple of places up the table. Carrol added, "We got off to a good start with "Chiz's" goal and never really looked back.
Brora always give us a decent game here and we had to up for the challenge as well as grabbing the much-needed three points to get our season back on track and we did both. All the boys worked hard and looked hungry and it's an added bonus to have Robbie Brown and Steve Dolan available again as this gives us the much required competition for places".