Vale captain James Elliot stressed the importance of a cup run to the club’s season ahead of the South Challenge Cup match against Creetown. But the match itself is a leap into the unknown for the skipper and his team-mates, with Elliot admitting he does not know a great deal about the visitors.

Creetown play their football in the South of Scotland League, hence why he has never come across them before.

Elliot said: “I don’t really know much about them. I know they play the likes of Threave who we have played in the past, but I don’t really know what to expect. But it’s been a good last three games and we want to keep the run going. It’s a cup game so anything can happen. We would really like to win a cup this season, or at least do well in one.”

The run he refers to is the three wins against Preston, Hawick Royal Albert and Whitehill Welfare which has moved the Vale up to fourth in the Lowland League. Prior to that, results had been up and down. Asked about the importance of consistency, Elliot explained: “It’s massive. If teams round about us are beating each other and we can have a run of consistent wins then that is massive.

“We want to beat everybody and we want to stay in the top half. Last year we struggled against the bigger teams but we also lost to some of the so-called smaller teams towards the end.

“So far this season we have played a mixture of teams, but we have played some of the ones you would expect to be near the top and coped well. We are fourth and we want to stay there so we have to continue to win games. We can’t afford to lose every other game, we need that consistency.”