Vale of Leven boss challenges players to earn place for Auchinleck Talbot clash

Vale Juniors boss Brian Brown admits a fortnight break from action could be a blessing in disguise for his injury hit squad.

The Vale saw Saturday’s Junior Cup clash with Auchinleck Talbot called off thanks to a frozen Millburn pitch - for the second week in a row.

It means the Alexandria side haven’t played since a 4-2 win over Girvan in mid-November, but the boss says the enforced break may have came at the ideal time - after he was able to name just three outfield subs in Ayrshire.

Brian told the Lennox: “We’ve been struggling badly with injuries and it’s not been a bad thing getting a couple of weeks without a game. But most of them aren’t going away unfortunately, so we’re still not in a great place. But we will have a couple back for this weekend.

“We’ve spent far too long just getting games on constantly at the Millburn, but the last two games have been totally taken out of our hands with the frost. It’s been a blessing in disguise.

“When we went down to Girvan we were umpteen players short, 2-0 down and had another player carried off after about 10 minutes.

“The boys really dug in and what a performance it ended up being in really bad conditions. We did well pulling that out the bag.”

This Saturday sees the Vale travel to Glasgow to take on Finnart - and Brown hopes for a big performance from his troops, who will be keen to secure their place in the starting lineup for the visit of Ayrshire giants Talbot in a fortnight.

Brian continued: “This weekend I’m hoping the temperatures rise a wee bit, because even the astroturf parks have been struggling.

“Hopefully we get a game played before our really important cup tie against Auchinleck. We need to get gametime before that.

“Every time we’ve played Finnart since they