I have posted the Blogger report from Andy Bliss who travels the country visiting grounds and his report probably sums up the luck we are getting at present.

The man of the Match was Ross Brady.

A trip to Edinburgh to visit friends gave me a perfect excuse to take in my third game in five days. While our respective better halves amused themselves elsewhere, myself and Neil could nip down to the borders to take in some Lowland League action.

Our afternoon would be spent at Victoria Park, Innerleithen, watching Vale of Leithen taking on near (15 Miles) neighbours, Selkirk.
We made good time from Edinburgh to Innerleithen but then made the mistake of trusting the Satnav which led us to the middle of a housing estate and insisted the ground was in the middle of the road in a side street. Luckily a passing local put us right and directed us to the other end of the town where we parked up next to what we thought was the ground. The lack of any fencing or indeed, goalposts, showed our mistake but luckily Victoria Park proved to be only round the corner.
I was briefly quite popular with the two women on the gate where my purchase of entry to the ground, a programme, a half time draw ticket and a scarf (bargain at only £5) was probably one of the ‘sales of the day’.
We entered the ground and had a wander round the outside of the pitch, taking in the big match atmosphere (?) and getting our bearings. Victoria Park is fairly unspectacular in itself: a pitch with an old terraced stand on one side, but it’s in a very picturesque setting surrounded by trees and hills and is one of the most scenic grounds I’ve visited in my travels to date. A cheap (but very average) pie later and we took our places in the stand behind the home dugout.
Vale had not had the best of starts to the 2017/18 season having taken only 6 points from their first 10 league games and sat second to bottom of the league above the campaign’s whipping boys, Hawick Royal Albert (who had lost all nine of their fixtures to date). Selkirk, 5th in the league with 18 points from 9 games, therefore looked firm favourites on paper.
The game progressed contrary to my expectations and, rather than being a comfortable run out for the visitors, I thought Vale probably edged the first half of a close and entertaining encounter. Almost inevitably (it seems to happen regularly these days) it was Selkirk who took the lead,  against the run of play,  but Vale didn’t crumble and drew level before half time with a well taken free kick. The second half followed a similar pattern and Vale probably looked the most likely to score next. Unfortunately, a needless free kick was conceded and Selkirk took full advantage to go 1 – 2 up with less than ten minutes on the clock.
The home side desperately searched for an equaliser and had a half hearted penalty appeal turned down before, with seconds left, one of their players was definitely fouled right on the edge of the box. The referee wasn’t convinced however and play continued with Selkirk breaking down the field and extending their lead, possibly from an offside position, with the last kick of the game.
Vale can consider themselves very unlucky to lose this game and the 1 – 3 scoreline certainly flattered Selkirk.

This Saturday we have a very important match as the team struggles second bottom of the Lowland League.

This season has just been one injury after another and with a player sent off in each of the last two games it has been very restrictive in establishing a settled team. We don’t appear to be getting any breaks at all and last night’s performance was just typical of our luck, playing well until one of our centre backs was send off in a very harsh decision with the score at 0-0.

Vale operate on a very low budget compared to other teams in the league, and in some cases these other teams have investors who are injecting cash into the clubs with the intention of getting their teams into the senior leagues. Unfortunately Vale will never be in that situation unless a fairy godmother decides to make Innerleithen their base. We accept that we are really punching above our weight and that staying in the Lowland League is our priority, with hopefully a run in a few of the cups. This being the case it maintains a good level of football for spectators is on show in the town every second week.

A look at the league table statistics really tells the story, we have not scored enough goals and lost too many, which is what you would expect from a team that changes every week due to off field related problems e.g. long term injuries etc.

This week is the National Non League Day which is encouraging spectators who normally go to senior games to attend minor games, and we will take part in this with some special deals for adults bringing kids along. If kids are there at 1.30pm our Manager will show them around the dressing rooms and let them meet some players.

From the club’s perspective, outwith the match results, everything this year has been on the up, bigger crowds, more sponsorship and more help with running the club.

It would be great to see your support continue and hopefully when we get the team settled we can start to turn the corner, we must be overdue a break one way or another. There is still a good few games left to correct the situation, especially homes games where the support can really encourage the team.

So thanks again for the support and “KEEP FAITH”