VALE boss Chris Anderson hopes talisman striker Sean Stewart can fire his team to victory in Saturday's Borders derby.

The Innerleithen club's top scorer, who has netted 11 league goals already this season, has been linked with moves to several clubs including Edinburgh City, Berwick Rangers and Kelty Hearts.

Despite still being on the transfer list, Anderson is confident his pacy forward will remain a Vale player until the end of the season.

And he hopes he will add to his tally at Netherdale on Saturday.

Chris told us: "Sean has done really well for us over the past couple of seasons and he's been really loyal.

"We feel it is only fair to allow bigger clubs to come in for him and allow him to step up a level.

"Although there have been offers I think Sean is going to stay with us and I'm fairly confident he'll be returning to the starting team for Saturday's game at Gala.

"It's a big game for us and we go into it with almost a full squad."

Anderson welcomes back no fewer than eight players who missed last weekend's trip to Kelty Hearts.

Defenders Jack Blaikie, Paul Dickson and Alex Imlah are all available for the Lowland League derby.

And Anderson also has David Bonnar, Scott Wilson, Marc Berry and Ryan Currie available for selection as well as Stewart.

But the manager admits it will be difficult to drop players from the team who earned a draw at New Central Park.

He added: "Although we only got a draw against Kelty it was probably the best team performance that I've had since becoming manager.

"Every player stuck to the game plan and we couldn't have done any better.

"We have a much stronger squad to take down to Gala but it is difficult to drop players who have done so well."

Although Vale are currently third bottom of the table, a win in the derby could take them above Gala who are currently ninth/ The Fairydean Rovers are also close to full strength with the return of Reece Donaldson, Craig O'Reilly and Darren Smith from suspension.

Manager Dean Shanks said: "They beat us at the start of the season and I want to get some revenge.

"We are a much better team now than we were then but we know we'll need to be at our best.

"The problem we've had this season is that we're excellent one week then poor the next - we need some consistency."

Phil Addison, who has been out since the start of the season with a knee injury, is expected to be on the bench this week.

Saturday's game at Netherdale kicks off at 3pm.