The season is well underway and if i thought the squad had changed during pre season it was nothing in comparison to the changes that have taken place over the last two months. Players have come and players have gone and more players have come. It's got to the stage where we probably have a bigger squad than Rangers have bank employees in the board room!!

In our case however the new figures are very welcome but more importantly the standard of player is very good. This will be the reason our form has picked up significantly since the early league games. Seven points from our last nine in the league has lifted us from the foot of the table to a position where we are looking at the teams ahead of us and thinking we can rein them in.

That is easier said than done right enough. We have to do it on the park starting on saturday when we play the league leaders Caley H who we know well. Two seasons we have played them now and we or should i say the few of us left know, Caley give little away cheeply and will provide stern opposition.

Carrying on from our performance against a much fancied Sandy's we will certainly be in with a shout of acheiving a positive result. That will require us to have the right attitude and concentrate throughout the 90 minutes at the dreaded gyle pitches. Not a friend to us in the past. Caley will no doubt be aware on saturday that our team has changed but a few ugly mugs are still in attendance, my own and the nighthawks to name but two.

Harry Dunn

The space between this blog and the last one has only been matched by the gap between our games. The crazy seven week lay-off due to the weather and festive period resulted in a very limp exit from the East of Scotland Cup. That is not an excuxse for our performance as we were lucky to loose by only four goals.

Last week we did however return to a better standard of performance, after the first half at least. The fact we lasted the 30 minutes extra time will help our returning match fitness going into this weeks league match.

Yes, i did say LEAGUE MATCH...........the first one since the beginning of September and our fifth of the season. I would imagine we will have a few league games coming up as we have been exiting cups fairly quickly in the last couple of weeks.

On a positive note, there are no penalties involved in a league game and that is good news for a few of  the squad and me in particular. That news is almost as good as the fact the park is not surrounded by a fence for our hardy centre halfs to run into and bite. The damage to your mouth, gums and lips can leave you feeling a little hairy for weeks to come.

Harry Dunn

Saturday\'s win was good for the team and now means we have reached the 3rd round of the East of Scotland twice in three seasons. Our 3rd round tie in the Scottish Cup did not go according to plan last month so hopefully this weekends 3rd round tie will be a little bit more successful.

Due to the ridiculous carry-on with our pitch being poached from quite literally under our boots  we had to reschedule the 2nd round tie for last Saturday. This now means we will be playing in the East of Scotland Cup twice in a week. It\'s always nice to be involved in the cup competitions but it is not doing our league position any favors, we have not had a league game for almost 3 months.

Saturday\'s victory was welcomed and we are all looking forward to the next round this week. The scoreline on saturday was possibly a little closer than it should have been. After notching a double in the first half I managed to miss from all off 2 yards with an open goal and then further compound my bright start by having a late penalty saved also. Deadly from 2 and 12 yards, I WISH!!

This weekend sees us play another side from the Edinburgh East division, Edinburgh South Vics. On current form they should be a stern test, having won all their league games and only tasting defeat in one cup competiton, they will no doubt be full of confidence. We are not playing too badly ourselves, Saturday\\\'s game should be a well contested, close encounter (on paper at least).

Harry Dunn

Saturday's cup defeat followed hot on the heels of our exit in the Scottish Cup last week. The feeling in the camp is a lot different this week than it was last though. It is always difficult to go out of any cup but when it comes down to the lottery of penalties after a hard fought 120 minutes you can (grudgingly) accept it. Unfortunately, i will have to take some of the responsibility for our loss due to my failure from the hole twelve yards out.

I think we all felt we had played well after the game and matched Armadale all over the park. The fact that the game was tight from start to finish emphasised the difference on the day may have been; better finishing, a bit of luck or a fortunate decision. Armadale have now beaten us twice on penalties and it is becoming a pain to loose a derby that way again.

The game was good to play in and a lot of respect was shown between the players of each side to one another. The referee handled the game really well and priase must go to him because he was excellent throughout. What wasn't enjoyable however was the pitch, bloody murder, would be a more accurate description. It was heavy on the legs and judging a bounce of the ball was almost impossible. The weather has taken its toll on the park and the coming weeks and months don't offer much hope of it getting any better. Hopefully the council will be able to mend the other pitch and remove the remains of the bonfire some local eegits had on it last wednesday.

We are undoubtedly due a few away games and this may help us through the winter. This week does not provide us with such a luxury though. We are again at home, this time in the East of Scotland second round. Breck Hermitage progressing from the first round tie via a penalty shoot out. I would predict a tight match on Saturday but last weekends Scottish cup exit is still fresh in the mind so i will finish by saying Saturday was a better day and hopefully this Saturday will be even better and we will have a third round tie to look forward to, on a flat grassy pitch.

Harry Dunn 

Training outside has definately confirmed that winter is offically here. I have been away for a while and missed a fair amount of training but fortunately (for me) not many games, in fact only two. Both were against Ferneside in the Scottish and congratulations to all the boys for making it into the 3rd round this saturaday. Not having had a game since the 1st of September we will have played 3 games in three weeks this saturday if the game beats the weather. That will be quite a feat in the current climate.

Although the temperature has plummetted in the last few days the turn out at training last night was exceptional with everyone desperate for a place in the team this weekend. It\\\'s going to be a tough call for the management team on who to play and leave out. With the temperature dropping there is more chance of game going ahead because the rain has finally stopped. This will hopefully dry or harden the parks up as they were becoming saturated with all the rain.

Unfotunately, we are again having to move our home game because another team has booked our park, at least this time it is the local juvinelle side and not another amateur side from another town. We will just have to contend with the bumps and lumps the Meadow Park brings and hope we don't loose too many balls in the burn. After returning to training last night i am now looking forward to saturday in what will be a keenly contested 3rd round tie, i just hope we do better in this one than the 3rd round tie we had in our maiden season. We were roundly thumped 7-1 that day by a very good Leven side.

Personally, i am hoping to reach the 4th round and break a long standing jinx of never having won a 3rd round tie. Maybe it would be better if i didn't turn up? Anyway fingers crossed for saturday's game to first of all beat the weather and then to end happily for all at Vale. Talking about fingers it's time to find my gloves for Saturday, after all it's fricken freezing outside.

Harry Dunn

Four games in and we are sitting top of the league, all be it with a tinge of dissapointment. Last weekends 1-1 draw with Balerno ended our 100% record even though we played well and probably deserved more, so i have been told. Having missed last weeks game i was delighted to return on monday evening at Pilton.

Although the pitch was fairly solid underneath there was a huge amount of surface water lying on top of the pitch. This made life particuarly difficult for defenders, which i was one, during the match. Turning was a bit of a lottery and you never knew if you would stay upright or not.

The pleasing thing from all the boys point of view was the way we refused to be beaten even though we were behind for a large portion of the match. When the equaliser went in there was a feeling a winner would come, it did, eventually. Big Paul taking his tally to an impressive three in four matches enabled us to plunder the three points and head home satisfied the midweek games are over for now.

10 points from twelve is an impressive start but that's all it is, a start. After taking most of last season to get to the 10 point mark it is nice to do so early this time around. There is still the nagging that it could have been 12 though. Tomorrow we face a trip to Sighthill to face a rejuvinated Meadow Star. Meadow have really picked up from last season judging by their results so far and tomorrow's game is sure to be a stern test.

Confidence is high with everyone fighting for a starting place, it is sure to be an improved performance from monday evening. Here's hoping the weather holds and tomorrow we will be toasting a vale and Scotland double.

Harry Dunn

Since my last post we have played two games and happily managed two wins. Two games down and eighteen to go. If the two wins we have had and the results from the other games played tell us anything it is that the Lothian West division is going to be tighter than two coats of paint.

The vitory over Granton on saturday was a splendid result for the team considering we had so many debutaunts playing. Granton proved too strong for us last season so it was nice to match them all over the park on saturday and eventually run out desrved winners. They have already bounced back though and their impressive win last night shows they are prepared to go the distance this season.

Another fimilar face started the season well on saturday, Bridgend made a mockery off their pre-season form and recorded a fine win although they will have been dissapointed with last nights post-ponement. Our game last night also went ahead on an unfimilar pitch in Bathgate, Meadow Park, our usual home park being vetoed by the sports centre due to the amount of games played on them at the weekend.

We never really got the ball moving last night but managed to grind out a result in the end against a more than decent Addiewell side who caused a number of problems. The little knocks that shouldn't be a problem were last night with most of the team limping out of the changing rooms last night, two games in 48 hours isn't easy on the muscles or maybe its just me. Still we have a few days to rest before saturday's difficult match against Balerno.

So far we have failed to beat Balerno in three meetings we have had. Two league draws and a thumping 6-0 victory for Balerno in our league cup semi final shows we will have to be at the top of our game on saturday. Unfortunately, i will not be able to help the boys out as i have best man duties to take care of and a couple of others will be winging their way to Ibiza. A couple of suspended squad members returning should mean we have a strong squad though. Good luck on saturday boys and try and make it three down.

Harry Dunn

One training session and two days to go until the season starts. Everyone is looking forward to our big kick off and no doubt the same feeling will be going through the other teams in our division. Last weeks game was a stiff test which the boys came through well and our new signings stood up well to opposition. A bit of luck or better finishing from myself and we may well have won the game at the death right enough.

Saturday's game could hardly be a more challenging opening to our league campaign. Granton Vale who somehow managed to blow promotion last season will probably start favourites with Pilton for promotion again this season. Granton defeated us twice last season and although we matched them for long periods of both games they did run out deserved winners on both occassions.

We have no idea if they have improved or not from last season and I guess we will only find out on saturday if the game goes ahead. Amazingly the weather has been so bad that a lot of games will be in danger of being rained off. It's supposed to be summer, which should maybe put to bed the yearly calls for an introduction to summer football. It doesn't matter when we play the games are always in danger from the weather.

Personally, I think the season is fine the way it is and should be kept the same. Blisters on hard parks are far worse than aching calfs from wading through the occassional bog of a park. Our park was quite firm last saturday and should, with a halt to the rain in the next two days, be playable. That is unless any rogue teams have been using it during the midweek down pours that we got caught in during training. We would have been drier in a swimming pool than we were on tuesday. Anyway fingers crossed.
Harry Dunn

One week into August and we are already two teams down in our league division. The withdrawl of Gorgie Hearts and Burndale was as surprising as it was dissapointing. After only having 9 teams in our division last season we are faced with the prospect of the same again this season although rumour has it we might be boosted with the promotion of two other rivals. This would be welcomed by everyone at Vale and i'm sure our division as only 16 league games a season is not great especially when our cup form last season was horrific.

After missing only one game last season it is with great dissapointment that I have only managed 30 mins of pre-season action. A long standing injury needed some well earned rest and hopefully the last two months of inactivity have done the trick, this saturday and next will let me know. The reason i am desperate for some action is due to the flood of new players we have in the squad. My place and everyone else's are up for grabs, competiton is going to be intense when the season kicks off although one or two suspension may ease the strain on the management team, albeit temporarily.

The teams progress has been good with the new signings all looking like they will enhance the club's standing and hopefully push us forward to challenge for promotion. With two teams dropping out who had the potential to go the distance this season it remains to be seen if any further casualties will be incurred much like the mitre football. What did happen to the mitre delta match ball? Surely games would be better off with it than the new lighter fly away versions we use now.

Harry Dunn

Well pre-season has offically begun and the hard work is being put in by the squad. Almost the end of the second week of training and as i sit here writing this, the first of what will be many ramblings over the season, the boys will no doubt be easing their aching muscles in a bath full of radox.

The two new additions to the management team (Peter and Robbie) have been welcomed by the boys. The swelling of coaches at training has only been surpassed by the amount of new signings and potential signings currently bursting a gut to impress on the hill runs, shuttle runs and paper runs............such is the age of a few of the new boys.

The good part about having such spritely new team mates is they are pulling the old guard along, yes James, Davey, Franny, Kev, Murph and Chrissy i\'m talking about you. Unfortunately, I have been unable to take part due to an injury carried over from last season. I am however not alone in that department with Aldo, Mark, Chrissy and Roman all reporting a wide variety of pains, strains and pulls.

As the holiday season begins, combined with T in the Park the pains are only gonna get worse. Anyway enough of this waffling, April O\'Neill, Channel 5 News. Signing off.