One part of the the foundation story of Vale of Leven F.C. is that it was formed in August 1872 but as team that was unsure whether it would play Association or Rugby-football. Another part is that Queen's Park F.C. in the summer or autumn of that same year took the train to Alexandria to put on at Park Neuk in the town a game, a demonstration game, which atracted the attention not just of local sportsmen but from the whole of the Leven valley. What is certain is that by 21st December 1872 and just three weeks after the first Scotland-England had been played at Hamiton Crescent in Partick the decision had been made. "The Vale" was a round-ball club, would itself travel to Glasgow to play Queen's Park away and would receive the same club just three weeks later at home. The die had been cast but not just in terms of the future of the sport itself but in the way in Scotland it would soon be played but how the Vale of Leven would change the direction of the game. In a match against Airdrie at the end of August 1872 Queen's Park had adopted a new 2-2-6 on-field formation. It had used that same formation in the international but in between and for the rest of the 1872-3 season reverted to the English 1-2-7. However, The Vale not only had also employed 2-2-6, what would become recognised as "the Scottish formation", in the December game but would not stray from it, albeit in one form or another, for the next decade and a half of unparalleled success at club level - the World's first trophy-winning working-class team, three Scottish Cup wins in a row, four times runner-up, "World Champions" - and for the national team - one defeat in fifteen seasons.