An injury-time goal from Nairn defender Callum MacLean saw Deveronvale miss out on the opportunity to climb above their opponents in the Highland League table.
Man-of-the-match Paul Sutherland gave Vale the lead eight minutes from the half-time interval at Banff but Ross Naismith’s penalty after 64 minutes levelled matters.
Vale looked to have claimed the points through a fine finish in the 78th minute from substitute Nathan Ross but Nairn never gave up and got a deserved point through MacLean’s header.
Nairn manager Ronnie Sharp rated it his team’s worst recent showing.
He said: “We were poor, so to come here and score in the last minute to get a point we will take that.”
“It was a fair result overall as I don’t think that any team deserved to win. Our decision making was the poorest it has been for a while but we showed fighting qualities and that was the best thing to take out of the game for ourselves.”
Deveronvale manager Steve Dolan agreed with Sharp that a draw was just about right but he was bitterly disappointed to lose such a late goal.
He said: “I thought we defended pretty well up until the point that we lost the late goal and did struggle a bit when Nairn levelled for the first time but once we went ahead again I thought that we looked pretty comfortable. It is hard to take losing such a late goal.
“The game itself was pretty flat. We had the better chances but they had better possession, so it is disappointing not to take some of our openings.”