Stuart Anderson praised his depleted Formartine United side for reaching the quarter-finals of the Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shield.
United were without eight players and then lost Rhys Thomas to a suspected knee injury after 20 minutes.
Manager Anderson said: We’re delighted to be in the next round, it was always going to be a tricky game, especially with the amount of injuries we’ve got.
“I thought we deserved it on chances, but it was frustrating we couldn’t put the game to bed.
“When it doesn’t happen there’s always a chance they’ll get an opportunity or two, which they did. Thankfully Ewen Macdonald made a great save at the end.
“The task was to get through, we did that and I thought it was a decent performance from us considering it was our fourth game in 11 days.
“It’s been mainly the same boys because we’ve been stretched squad-wise and credit to them they’ve done well.
“A few of them played through the pain and credit to them, we’ve got a little bit of a break now and hopefully they can rest and we’ll see where they are next week.”
Campbell makes the difference
The only goal of the tie arrived after 17 minutes. Vale goalkeeper Sean McIntosh did well to keep out Jake Stewart’s header and Campbell’s attempt on the rebound.
But from the corner which followed Marc Lawrence’s delivery picked out the unmarked Campbell who looped a header into the left corner.
Stewart was a lively presence throughout and either side of half-time he teed up Aaron Norris and Lewis Wilson, but Harry Noble and McIntosh blocked for the Banffers.
With the deficit only one goal Vale were never out of the contest. Olek Dlugosz tested United goalkeeper Ewen Macdonald with a strike from 25 yards.
But the home side’s best chance of netting an equaliser, which would have forced penalties, arrived in the third minute of injury time.
Ryan Park’s shot broke for Innes McKay inside the area, but Macdonald flew to his left to save the effort from 12 yards.
Boss felt Vale deserved spot-kicks
Deveronvale boss Craig Stewart said: “I’m disappointed not to take it to penalties. It was a corner for the goal that we didn’t defend well enough, although it was good movement from Formartine.
“Apart from that I didn’t think there was much in the game, I thought we were better in the second half and controlled the game.
“Formartine were more of a threat in the first half, but I thought in the second half we deserved to at least take it to penalties.
“With the amount of possession we had and a couple of half chances we had I think we’re unlucky to lose.
“If we play like that every week we’ll be all right, but I feel like I keep saying that. We need to turn these narrow defeats into draws and the draws into wins.”
