Innes McKay hopes Deveronvale can find some consistency as they look to start a cup run.
The Banffers face Formartine United tonight at Princess Royal Park in the first round of the Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shield.
Vale have been up and down this season, but have impressed recently in their Scottish Cup win against Culter and last week’s 3-3 draw with Banks o’ Dee.
However, defender McKay felt they slipped below the required standards in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Nairn County.
The 22-year-old said: “It’s a case of trying to get some consistency, we maybe have some naivety, but we’ve definitely got the quality to contend with any team in the league on our day.
“I think we’ve shown that at times this season, it’s a case of everyone being at it and working together.
“The cups are important, we’re in a transitional period at Deveronvale, but a cup run would be good for the club and the fans.
“It can build some confidence so hopefully we can get a result against a good Formartine side and try to make a run.
“Saturday against Nairn was a disappointment, hopefully we can bounce back in this tie.”
United down on numbers
Meanwhile, Formartine are set to be without nine players. Kieran Adams, Aaron Norris, Johnny Crawford, Aidan Combe and Daniel Park are injured.
Matthew McLean has work commitments, Julian Wade is on international duty with Dominica and Aberdeen loan duo Adam Emslie and Dylan Lobban are also unavailable.
That means manager Stuart Anderson is set to draft in some players from the Pitmedden outfit’s youth set-up.
He said: “We’ll bring in some of our young lads from the Under-21s and Under-18s.
“It’s a good opportunity for the guys to show what they can do and good experience for them.”
Although Formartine are top of the Breedon Highland League and Deveronvale are 13th, Anderson certainly isn’t underestimating the Banffers.
The United boss also dismissed talk about a run to the latter stages of the Aberdeenshire Shield, insisting his sole focus is this tie.
Anderson added: “You want to win every game in every competition you take part in.
“But we never look any further than the game in front of us which is Deveronvale.
“Deveronvale are a really good side, if you look at their Scottish Cup result and their result against Banks o’ Dee you see that.
“We played them a few weeks ago and it was a lot tighter than the scoreline (5-0 Formartine win) suggests, they’ve also got some of the best young players in the league.”