Deveronvale minus the evergreen Steve Dolan and the injured Mike McKenzie slumped to their first defeat of the new season when they went down by four goals to nil at the hands of hosts Inverurie Locos, the first time the Harlaw Park club had defeated the former champions in the league since joining the Highland League over three years ago.
A tight first forty-five saw Locos take the lead through Kenny Coull's delightful chip following a quickly taken corner kick. Vale were forced to withdraw skipper Robbie Brown at the interval and he was replaced by the recently re-signed Mark Smith who made his debut after missing the first two matches through suspension.
It was far from a happy return to the Vale for "Rusty" when he was harshly adjudged to have brought down Craig Ross when challenging a loose ball inside the area. John Young put the home side further in front from the spot not long before the defender found himself in the same position after Smith had decked Stuart McKay with a last ditch tackle after he had raced clear looking to wrap up the points for his side. Young made no mistake from the resultant penalty award and to make matters worse for Gregg Carrol's boys McKay then finished off the scoring with a beauty no less than a minute later when he smacked a high drive into the roof of the net from 20-yards.
Another sunny Saturday had seen Vale travel to Inverurie buoyed by their marathon win on Tuesday evening over Buckie but knowing only too well how well the home side had began their campaign with two impressive away victories at champions Clach and at Keith in the Aberdeenshire Cup on Tuesday.
Locos were without manager John Gardiner who was attending a wedding and were left in the capable hands of Ian "Cup Tie" McKay for their first home game of the season in front of a decent crowd of over five hundred.

The home side kicked off proceedings facing down the Harlaw slope and were soon in action with Stuart McKay firing straight at Bremner from the edge of the area. Vale came into the game and more or less dominated the next twenty minutes of the match without really testing new Locos custodian Mark Coull in between the home sticks.
A high lunge on Barrie Stephen by Steven Park resulted in a stern lecture from referee Logan but no yellow card was shown to the central defender.
A superbly timed tackle from Mark Slater on Stuart McKay prevented the striker with a clear sight of goal as Locos slowly gathered momentum roared on by their enthusiastic home support.
Mark Coull was quickly off his line to gather at the feet of Barrie Stephen before the hard working Graeme Cadger blazed over from a decent position.
Craig Ross then headed a Buchan centre wide of the far post when well placed before Young did likewise following another set piece from the home side.
Recent signing from Elgin City Neil McLean should have done better when presented with a good chance at the far post but Ross Bremner stood up well to turn the ball round his right-hand post. But McLean made amends when he quickly took the resultant corner to find Kenny Coull unmarked inside the six yard box and the ex-Cove striker delighted the home crowd with a deft flick which saw the ball swerve over the outstretched hand of Bremner before nestling it's way into the back of the net for the opener.
Stuart Gray saw his snapshot from a difficult angle easily saved by Coull as Vale responded but without the usual penetration associated with the Banff club who were desperately missing the influential Mike McKenzie and the experienced Steve Dolan.

Smith came on at the restart for captain Brown who was suffering from blisters but made the worst possible start to his resurrected Vale career.
Eight minutes into the half and the midfielder through in a challenge for the ball with sponsor's man-of-the-match Craig Ross and although it looked quite clear that he won the ball referee Stuart Logan saw things differently and immediately pointed to the spot. John Young sent Ross Bremner the wrong way with the penalty to put Locos two up at a very important stage of the encounter.
Karl Farrimond immediately made way for Jamie Watt as Gregg Carrol went all out looking for a way back into the game.
Watt's first site of goal came within five minutes but he completely miscued after a neat lay-off from Paul Urquhart set him up 15-yards from goal.
Ross almost grabbed a third for the home side when he was allowed a free run right through the heart of Vale's defence but he lost control just before setting himself to shoot.
Barrie Stephen fired straight down the throat of Coull and as play raged to the other end McKay poked an effort agonisingly past the far post with only Bremner to beat.
Vale were understandably pushing bodies forward as they endeavoured to get back into the game but were caught when Stuart McKay intercepted a cross-field pass before running a good forty-yards straight at the Vale goal with Mark Smith strongly in pursuit. The striker knew exactly what he was doing and when the expectant tackle came from Smith it was never in doubt that he was going down leaving referee Logan with the easy decision of awarding Locos a second penalty. Smith was cautioned for the challenge before John Young dispatched another spot-kick past the wrong-footed Ross Bremner.
Vale's young side were stunned but worse was to follow less than sixty seconds later when Stuart McKay picked up another loose ball before curling a screamer into the top corner of the net to almost bring the house down especially when he performed a spectacular somersault as he celebrated with the jubilant home support.
With five minutes left on the clock Ross Bremner pulled off a fine stop to deny Neil McLean a debut home goal with a flying save to his left.
The last chance of the afternoon fell to substitute Andy Low but again "Brems" was equal to it standing strong to beat away the strikers' effort to keep the score line to just the four.

Gregg Carrol was raging after the game when he said; "we were just terrible from start to finish. I can take absolutely nothing from the game and it's back to the drawing board I'm afraid".
Carrol refused to blame the penalty decision or the fact that the players may have been tired after the effort they put in on Tuesday night when he said "we didn't play as a team and there was no cohesion between the defence midfield and attack but we'll get them in to training on Monday and try to get things sorted out as quickly as possible with games against Aberdeen and Huntly coming along fast and furious".
Carrol confirmed that Steve Dolan had called off on Friday evening due to work commitments and that Mark Chisholm may require surgery on a groin problem to add to Vale's woes.

Vale:
Bremner, Gray, Pressley, Kidd (Chisholm 70), Dlugonski, Slater, Farrimond (Watt 56), #Brown (Cpt.) Smith 46), Cadger, Stephen, Urquhart
Subs not used: - Hendry, Phimister (GK)

Inverurie
M. Coull, Young, Buchan, Wilson (cpt), Simpson, Park, Ross, Taylor (Walker 75), K. Coull, McKay (Low 72), McLean
Subs not used: - Davidson, Fraser, Graham

Manager: - John Gardiner

Referee: S. LOGAN