Season 1961-62 saw Vale reach the final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup against Gala Fairydean. The first leg at Victoria Park finished 3-3, with Gala emerging victorious in the second leg 1-0. This result meant that Vale had qualified for the Scottish Cup proper again and resulted in the biggest football match ever to be staged in Innerleithen, when Heart of Midlothian were drawn to visit Victoria Park in the Second Round on the 27th of January 1962.

When small teams drew big guns at that time in the Scottish Cup, the game could, if both sides were agreeable, be simply switched to the bigger team’s ground. The national press – and Hearts too – tried to get the game switched to Tynecastle, which would have been more financially beneficial to both sides but the SFA maintained that they had every confidence in Vale being able to host the tie. The police decided that the game would be all-ticket and set a crowd limit of 3,500, although they later allowed another 200 tickets to be released. The demand locally was so great that only 1,500 of these tickets went to Hearts. Interest in the game was not limited to Innerleithen, as prior to the game, Vale Secretary Eddie Sanderson and Groundsman Willie Brunton appeared on Arthur Montford’s programme on STV and there was another invitation from Border TV for both to appear on a Friday evening show.

The day of the game was a lovely sunny winter afternoon and Victoria Park looked a picture with its 3,700 crowd, which remains Vale’s record gate. The committee had put a lot of work into the ground, installing concrete steps on the southern side of the ground and sleeper steps on the opposite side. Vale nearly caused a sensational opening. Just after kick-off, Hearts conceded a free kick just inside their half and when Vale left-back Stenhouse put a high ball into the Hearts area, the Hearts defence expected the ball to run out for a goal-kick. However, Vale’s outside-right Tommy Graham caught up with the ball on the line and squared it across goal towards outside-left Weir. Unfortunately the ball fell just behind him and Hearts keeper Cruikshank came out to smother the ball. After four minutes, Vale centre-forward Freddie Morrison beat Hearts centre-half Cumming and as Cruikshank came out of his goal, Morrison neatly lobbed him, but the ball bounced agonisingly on top of the bar and over. The excitement seemed to be too much even for the match ball as after six minutes it burst and had to be replaced! Alan Gordon opened the scoring for Hearts in the 14th minute and went on to complete his hat-trick by half time, and further goals in the second half from Willie Bauld and a Bobby Kirk penalty made the final score 5-0. Incidentally, for Hearts legend Bauld, a player so revered at Tynecastle he was known simply as ‘The King’, this game proved to be his last ever Scottish Cup tie for the club. The teams that day were; Vale: Currie, Robertson, Stenhouse, D Weir, Watson, McKean, Graham, Thomson, Morrison, McKinley & W Weir. Hearts: Cruickshank, Kirk, Holt, Polland, Cumming, Higgins, Paton, Wallace Bauld, Gordon & Ross, and the referee was Mr J. Barclay from Kirkcaldy.

Season 1962-63 saw no honours coming to Victoria Park, but the Vale team contained some well known players such as ex-Hibs right-half Jimmy Thomson, ex-Airdrie players Jimmy Welsh & Hugh ‘Golden’ Goldie and Bernie Kelly who had played for Raith Rovers and Birmingham City. Unfortunately, Duns also had some good players that year and put Vale out of the Scottish Qualifying Cup, winning 1-0 at Innerleithen in the First Round.

In 1964 Secretary Eddie Sanderson was appointed to the SFA council as a representative of the East of Scotland and Border Counties FAs. In all he served on the SFA council for 10 years on the Coaching, Finance and Appeal committees. Season 1964-65 saw Vale reach the semi-final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup, but beaten by Peebles Rovers 5-2 after a 1-1 draw in Innerleithen. However this still meant Vale had qualified for the Scottish Cup and had a visit from Stirling Albion in the Second Preliminary Round. The game was played on a hard frosty pitch in front of a crowd of 550 and Stirling adapted much better to the conditions, winning 5-0.

Season 1965-66 saw Vale finish second in the East of Scotland league, but behind Gala Fairydean, for whom the 60s was a terrific decade which saw them win the championship no less than seven times.
1966 was, of course, the year that England hosted the World Cup and France, one of the competing countries, had a two week stay at Peebles Hydro Hotel as part of their preparations, during which three practice games were set up in Galashiels, Innerleithen and Selkirk. Peebles were not allowed to host a game themselves, since they were playing in the Scottish Junior FA league at the time. As clubs were not allowed to play international sides the opposition to France were billed as East of Scotland Select teams. This meant that Vale, Gala Fairydean and Selkirk had to include a guest player to make it a select and Vale included Alex Steadman, a Selkirk player who had previously turned out for Vale. The game at Victoria Park took place on a Monday evening, with the French having won 8-1 in Galashiels the previous Thursday. The result was an 8-0 victory for the French, with the fast, skilful French players a delight to watch for the large crowd. Included in the French team was Jean Djorkaeff, who would two years later produce a son called Youri, who went on to win the World Cup with France in 1998. France went on to record an 11-2 victory over Selkirk two days later, but in the 1966 finals themselves found scoring a problem and finished bottom of their group, having scored only twice and just a single point gained from their three matches against Mexico, Uruguay and the host nation.

Vale reached the final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup in season 1966-67. In the First Round Vale travelled to Wigtown & Bladnoch and won 4-1. Another away tie in Girvan in the Second Round saw a 2-0 victory. Drawn at home to St Cuthbert Wanderers in the Third Round, Vale only managed a 1-1 draw, then drew by the same score in the replay. A third game at Palmerston Park, Dumfries though saw Vale get through 3-1, and this set up a semi-final meeting with Hawick Royal Albert who were beaten 2-1. The final was against Gala Fairydean but after a 5-3 Gala victory in the first leg at Victoria Park, they completed the job at their own ground winning 3-2.

On December 16th 1966 Vale were at home to Berwick Rangers in the Scottish Cup First Preliminary Round. The famous Jock Wallace was in goal for Berwick and Vale had a second minute goal disallowed and eventually lost 8-1. Berwick then went on to the First Round proper to register one of the biggest shocks the Scottish Cup has ever seen when they beat Glasgow Rangers 1-0.

In the 1967-68 season Scottish Qualifying Cup, Vale were drawn at home against Whithorn – a chance to avenge the 1955 defeat, which they did by winning 11-0. However, Vale lost to Hawick Royal Albert in the semi-final and to the same side in the First Round of the Scottish Cup. Vale got some revenge when they put Hawick Royal Albert out of the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup 2-0 after a 2-2 draw at Hawick, but lost 1-0 to Kelso in the semi-final.

Vale reached the semi-final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup again in season 1968-69, and were drawn away to Dumbarton in the Scottish Cup. Ian Whitehead opened the scoring for Vale in the 9th minute, and despite Jimmy Duncan also scoring, the end result was a 3-2 victory for the home side. The following season saw yet another Scottish Qualifying Cup semi-final place and a home tie in the Scottish Cup against Hamilton Academical. In another close game attended by 250, Hamilton won 2-1.

1969 also saw the opening of the Vale of Leithen Social Club, in what was formerly the Liberal Club in Leithen Crescent, which was opened in time for that year’s Innerleithen Games Week. Despite the name, the social club had no formal link to the football club, but obviously some people involved with the football club also served as committee members of both.