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After a haul of only two trophies in 29 years Vale made up
for it by winning double that in the space of five years during
the 1950's. The Border Cup was won in 1954, the King Cup in
1955, the Scottish Qualifying Cup (South) in 1957 and the
King Cup again in 1959.
In the Scottish Cup Vale played East Fife, then top of the
Scottish League, at Methil in 1953 with the Fifers winning
3-1.
In 1954 the format for the Scottish Cup was altered with
an all-in draw for the smaller clubs and the Qualifying Cup
put back to later in the season and renamed the South Cup.
In this year Civil Service Strollers were beaten by Vale 3-2
in Edinburgh in the First Round and in the Second Round Fraserburgh
were the visitors to Innerleithen and went away with a Third
Round place after defeating Vale 4-0.
The following year a controversial Scottish Cup First Round
tie at Whithorn ended in a 4-1 win to the hosts. However,
Vale had lodged a complaint with the referee before the match
that the pitch was 2 yards short of the minimum length required.
On the Monday morning a phone call from the Scottish Football
Association asked for the protest fee of 10/- to be sent as
the SFA were treating our complaint as a protest. The protest
was upheld and the game was ordered to be replayed at Whithorn
the following Saturday. This time the pitch had been marked
out at a length of 104 yards, 4 yards more than the minimum.
Vale had been well beaten the previous week and the replay
proved a disaster as Vale left-half William Stevenson fell
on the uneven pitch and dislocated his shoulder in only the
fifth minute. With no substitutes in those days Vale had to
play with 10 men and were thrashed 7-0.
In season 1956-57 Glasgow University were the visitors in
the Scottish Cup First Round and Vale won 6-1. The Second
Round was another home tie against Wick Academy, which Vale
again won 7-2. In the Third Round, Albion Rovers were drawn
in another home tie. In a hard game the visitors scored in
the fifth minute, after which Vale more than held their own
and unfortunately missed a second half penalty before a late
second goal in 86 minutes sealed the game for Rovers, leaving
Vale to wonder what might have been.
Vale reached the final of the South Cup in 1956 and played
Duns in a two-legged final. Duns won the first leg 4-0 and
although Vale were by far the better side in the second leg,
they could only win 2-1, making Duns the victors on aggregate.
In season 1957-58 the SFA changed the cup set up again, with
the Qualifying Cup re-introduced. Vale made a great start
beating St Cuthbert Wanderers 3-1 at Kirkcudbright in the
First Round, then Civil Service Strollers 5-2 at Liberton.
This was followed by a home Third Round match against Selkirk
which Vale won 5-1. In the Semi-Final Vale were held to a
1-1 draw at Victoria Park by Chirnside United, but won the
replay 4-3. The final - another two-legged affair - was a
local derby against Peebles Rovers. In the first game at Peebles,
Rovers won 3-1 after the Vale goalkeeper, local lad A Currie,
had to leave the field with an injury. The Vale team that
day was; A Currie, W Stenhouse, W McQue, S Charters, I Gourlay,
J Baillie, L Notman, J Hogg, E Miller, I Lawrie and L Tait.
The Vale scorer was Miller. In the second leg, with A Currie's
injury ruling him out, untried Edinburgh amateur player John
Henderson took over in goal in the only change to the team
from the first game. The new goalkeeper made a great save
early on in the match and Vale went on to open the scoring,
then scored another to level aggregate score with 18 minutes
left to play. Vale went on to score another 4 goals to run
out 6-0 winners on the day and 7-3 victors overall. The Vale
scorers that day were E Miller 3, L Notman 2 and J Hogg. Innerleithen
Town Council marked the occasion by giving Vale a civic reception
in recognition of their success.
On the 15th of February 1958, Vale were drawn away to Kilmarnock
in the 2nd Round of the Scottish Cup. Five buses made the
journey from Innerleithen and the attendance of 8,922 remains
the largest that Vale have played in front of. It was also
the day a two minute silence was observed for the Manchester
United Munich Disaster. In moving scenes, the Kilmarnock and
Vale players marched onto the pitch side by side and the silence
was observed with great dignity. The match was expected to
be a comfortable win for Killie and so it proved as they ran
out 7-0 winners, but perhaps the happiest person afterwards
was the Vale Treasurer, the large attendance yielding a cheque
for the tidy sum of £400.
Local lad L Notman, an outside-right who had featured and
scored twice in the Qualifying Cup win fell seriously ill
early in 1958. As he had also played for Peebles Rovers, a
benefit game was arranged between a Vale/Rovers Select and
Glasgow Celtic at Victoria Park in November 1958. The Celtic
side was managed by Jock Stein and featured Frank Haffey in
goal and also Pat Crerand and John Clark. In an entertaining
game Celtic won 2-1 and the proceeds from the game were handed
over to Notman who also met all the players.
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