A weary looking Deveronvale lost for the second time in three days as their title challenge crumbled beneath them when they again lost out by the odd goal this time at the hands of Lossiemouth.
Mark Chisholm's attempted clearance flew over the head of Ross Bremner to make the points safe for a very average Lossie side in a match which had everything for the neutral apart from a decent surface to play the game on.
The Coasters took an early lead through the tireless Shaun Scott but after Mark Slater had seen red for a last man tackle on the Lossie number nine Vale equalised when Paul Urquhart volleyed home.
A one-sided second half saw the Banff side force the issue for the majority of the forty-five but again fail to create enough in the final third and the writing was on the wall for the ten men when Darren Shalliker headed home from a near post corner and then "Chiz" scored his unfortunate O.G. to seal Vale's fate.
Tough tackling Kenny Gilbert scored a super free kick with three minutes remaining and there was still time for Ross Bremner to get shown his marching orders for getting involved in melee involving Shaun Scott who was also red carded but not enough minutes for Vale to salvage something from a week when nothing seemed to go their way.

Gregg Carrol had the formidable task of lifting his players after Wednesday's cruel defeat at Huntly but had to do so without unavailable trio Robbie Brown, Mike McKenzie and Bryan Dlugonski who had all made the Highland League select which was announced on the morning of the match but were unable to take part in yet another tricky away fixture for the Banffers.
After a recent suspension Darren Shalliker returned to the Lossie fold to partner Shaun Scott up front as they played for pride and perhaps some revenge after taking a bit of a doing at Princess Royal earlier in the season.

The game started at a frantic pace with both sides coming close to scoring although neither quite managed to do so.
A Vale raid into the Coaster's penalty area saw Kenny Gilbert's flighted free kick headed goalwards by Graeme Cadger but Steve Dunn in the home gaol got a strong hand to the ball before it was hacked clear off the goal line.
At the other end Darren Shalliker rattled Ross Bremner's left-hand post with a swerving free kick, which "Brems" may just have got his fingertips to before it too was thumped to safety. Shaun Scott opened the scoring when he took advantage of some hesitancy in the Vale 18-yard box between Ryan Pressley and Mark Slater who allowed the striker to nip in and lob a delicate effort over the slightly advanced Ross Bremner when all was required of the defensive due was one of them to take command of the situation and attack the awkward bouncing ball.
Another goalmouth scramble inside the Lossie box saw Steve Dunn save twice to firstly deny Mark Chisholm's headed effort and then through himself at the ground to foil Jamie Watt as he looked to force home the rebound.
Dunn then denied Graeme Cadger as he parried the ball to safety high to his left before the striker wasted a decent chance when he fired over after good link-up play between himself and Jamie Watt.
A quick breakaway by the home side resulted in an early bath for come back defender Mark Slater when he missed his attempted clearance before hauling down Shaun Scott as he ran through on goal. To makes matters worse for the central defender a stretcher was called as he had picked up concussion in the challenge, which was rather unfortunate as he was just making his return to action following an injury received at Brora a few weeks back.
Steve Dolan's long ranger failed to threaten Steve Dunn before Stuart Gray fired home a quickly taken free kick but the young referee chalked it off as he hadn't blown his whistle and apparently was not ready!
Mark Chisholm's header from the re-taken set piece sailed over the top much to the delight of the small band of noisy home supporters.
The ten men equalised deep into stoppage time when Graeme Cadger's knock down was volleyed past Steve Dunn by Paul URQUHART for his sixth of the season with the home defence looking at the far-side assistant for offside against the scorer.

Steve Dolan's free kick from the edge of the penalty area was deflected for a corner but Mark Chisholm failed to hit the target with a back post header off Gilbert's flag kick. Mark Smith, who looked like he might still be carrying an injury, and Graeme cadger both went down as they went to meet a Steve Dolan cross into the Lossie box but nothing was given by the man in black although "Cadge" certainly looked to have been fouled from behind by the clumsy looking Lossie number three.

Kenny Gilbert, just after receiving a yellow card for apparently persistent fouling was scythed down on the left-hand edge of the area but Jamie Watt's attempted flick from Gilbert's low cross was deflected wide of goal for yet another disappointing Vale set-piece. Shalliker had an effort blocked by Stuart Gray before the defender was also booked by the busy and over officious young ref.

Steve Dunn, for the third time, denied Graeme Cadger from point-blank range before Jamie Watt and substitute Terry Kidd got in each other's way as they both looked to pull the trigger on a loose ball 15-yards from goal.
Stuart Gray was next to pass up an opportunity when he volleyed past the post as Vale kept up the pressure on the home side.
Karl Farrimond replaced the jaded looking Mark Smith but rather than add to Vale's attacking options the young midfielder ended up in ref Watt's book for a clumsy but nothing like dangerous or malicious challenge on Ellis.
Darren Shalliker punished the visitors for their inability to take their chances when he glanced home a near-post corner after he had eluded his marker whilst giving his side an unlikely lead.
Things went from bad to worse for Gregg Carrol's men three minutes later when Mark Chisholm inadvertently hooked the ball over the head of Ross Bremner and into the net as he challenged Shaun Scott at the edge of his own penalty area to a loose ball.
Kenny Gilbert restored some price for the Banffers when he drilled home a 25-yard free kick, which nestled into the far corner well out of the reach of Steve Dunn.
A bad challenge on Stuart Gray as he lay on the deck resulted in Shaun Scott receiving his second yellow card of the afternoon but not before Ross Bremner had foolishly raced 25-yards to get involved in the incident and appartantly throw a punch in the way of Scott and he too was sent from the field of play by the unpopular young whistler, who set a president for himself early on and by this time seemed to have completely lost the plot.

Gregg Carrol had to keep his real thoughts under wraps and some of his comments couldn't even be published but what was printable was, "Our boys simply didn't apply themselves in the way that they should and a performance like that just isn't good enough. We got off to a very bad start, did a little better in the middle but all in all never performed to the standard set by myself and this club. We had put on such a great show on Wednesday but never came near it today and we got what we deserved.
I'm not going to blame tired legs, the referee or even the fact that we had some big players missing today because we know and the players know that they can do better and they've also been told that they shouldn't get involved with the referee they should just concentrate on playing and trying to win the game".