Gretna’s Dream and Disaster: How a Village Club Soared to the Stars and Fell to the Ashes | OneFootball

Gretna’s rise and fall is quite a fascinating story in the chaotic yet also beautiful world of Scottish football. One of dream and desire, where they aimed to reach the stars, turned to a burning fate of disaster which saw them fall to dark ashes within the ground. We look through the story of Gretna, Scotland’s forgotten club that dared to dream.

Who were Gretna? The early days

Founded in 1946 as a small club, Gretna Football Club wasn’t the first side that was born in the tiny village in the South of Scotland.

Way back in the 19th century, there was an amateur village club called Gretna Green. But sadly they didn’t last because, by the 1920s, they went bankrupt. This meant for over 20 years, the village of Gretna didn’t have a football club to get behind and support. Then came Gretna Football Club in 1946, a year after the second World War had ended. They were founded by local workers and servicemen who were returning from the war.

Former professional footballer, James Kerr (who played for Queen’s Park and Brentford), was one of the founders of the club and as part of the club’s committee, his opinion had great significance when picking the team. Gretna, to begin with, competed in the Dumfries and District Junior League.

Competing in English football

After just one year in the Dumfries and District Junior League, Gretna moved to the Carlisle and District League, despite being based in Scotland, although they were very close to the Anglo-Scottish border. They remained in the Carlisle and District League for all but one season until 1982 where they moved to the newly created Second Division in the Northern League. They secured promotion immediately.

By 1992, they had risen up to the Northern Premier League First Division after consecutive promotions from the Northern League First Division.

Gretna also competed in the English FA Cup during this period and became the first club since Queen’s Park in 1887 to compete in the competition whilst being based in Scotland. They were able to drag Rochdale into a replay in 1991 as well as giving Bolton a scare in 1993 before being eventually beaten.

Despite that though, by the mid 1990s Gretna saw their future back in Scottish football and applied to join the Scottish League in 1993 and 1999. To help boost their later application, the club took on a Rangers XI which they went on to beat 2-1.

Return to Scottish Football – The Glory Years

At the third attempt of asking, Gretna were finally allowed to rejoin the Scottish League and they took the place of Airdrieonians, who went defunct at the end of the 2001/02 campaign.

Gretna were then soon taken over by millionaire Brooks Mileson, who helped deliver a period of glory with his investment into the club. The small village club were able to secure successive promotions in the mid 2000s, winning the 4th tier title, 3rd tier title and the 2nd tier title. The latter was done in quite dramatic fashion. They also reached the Scottish Cup final during the 2005/06 campaign, becoming the first team from the third tier of Scottish football to reach the final.

Gretna defeated Dundee in the Semi Final of the competition, winning the game 3-0, before going on to face Hearts in the final. To be fair to them, they gave it a really good go by taking Hearts all the way to penalties after a 1-1 draw in normal time. But Hearts would leave Gretna heartbroken as the village club would fall to defeat in the shoot-out.

Despite the defeat in the Scottish Cup final though, Gretna were able to go into the qualifying stage of the UEFA Cup. This was because Hearts had already secured themselves Champions League football by finishing 2nd in the Premiership.

Gretna went on to face Derry City in the 2nd qualifying round of the UEFA Cup as part of pre-season preparation for the 2006/07 campaign where they were sadly well beaten across the two legs, 5-1 in the first leg at Fir Park (their actual home ground, Raydale Park, was deemed unsuitable for European Football) and then drawing 2-2 away from home in the second leg which saw them lose 7-3 on aggregate.

For a large part of the 2006/07 campaign, they were top of the league and cruising and at one stage had a double-digit margin to their closest challenger, St Johnstone. Towards the end of the season however, things were changing at Gretna.

The manager who took them up from the 4th tier and 3rd tier, as well as taking them to the 2006 Scottish Cup final, stepped down from his role due to a mystery illness. However, Rowan Alexander later claimed that he had no health issues and that the club chairman had asked him to take time away from his duties as manager.

With Gretna’s form slipping and St Johnstone on a good run, it all came down to the final day after the latter closed the gap to top spot by just a single point. Gretna, under Alexander’s assistant Davie Irons, were able to dramatically defeat Ross County 3-2 in stoppage time thanks to a 91st minute winner from James Grady. This saw the small village club achieve greatness!

A small village club who dared to dream achieved greatness and success, the Scottish Premiership was now a true reality for the club and its supporters. But sadly for them, the dream wasn’t as beautiful as it looked.

The Scottish Premiership years – DrEam turned disaster

After securing promotion the previous campaign, everything seemed so promising and exciting for Gretna who were ready to embark on their biggest challenge yet, taking on the giants of Scottish football in Scotland’s top flight. But were Gretna really ready?

To begin with, they weren’t allowed to use their actual stadium during the 2007/08 season because Raydale Park was deemed to have not met SPL criteria which meant Gretna had to play their home games at Motherwell’s Fir Park, a long way from their actual home. 75.7 miles away, to be precise, which is over an hour away from the village they were based in.

On the pitch, they also struggled significantly where they were only able to pick up four points from a possible thirty six in their opening 12 games and they didn’t win a single game in the top flight until the 22nd September 2007, 3-2 against Dundee United at Fir Park.

If that was bad enough to begin the season, things were only about to get a whole lot worse. Club owner Brooks Mileson, whose money and investment changed the fortunes of Gretna entirely from the early 2000s to where they got to in 2007, fell ill and with the club also accumulating debt of £4M, he withdrew his investment into Gretna, with devastating consequences for the club..

The managerial situation was also a confusing one. Rowan Alexander was told to step away from the club yet he wasn’t sacked at the time. He was still under contract as First Team manager despite his assistant Davie Irons running the team for the previous months he wasn’t there. Alexander even tried to get into Fir Park for Gretna’s first game in the Premiership, which saw the side led by Davie Irons lose 4-0 to Falkirk in August 2007, but he was refused entry into the main stand.

It wasn’t until November 2007 that Gretna officially informed the press Alexander had been sacked and that saw Davie Irons officially become the club’s new first team manager.

By 6th February 2008, Gretna’s financial and on pitch struggles got significantly worse, particularly on the financial side of things. It had been revealed that members of staff, including players, hadn’t been paid their salaries and unsurprisingly, Davie Irons and his assistant Derek Collins resigned the following day. The director of football, Mick Wadsworth, took over as interim and he was assisted by Iain Scott and Andy Smith.

The following month though saw the club’s fortunes go from shockingly bad to totally dreadful. On the 12th March 2008, the club went into administration as a consequence of Brooks Mileson withdrawing his supoort for the club and under the regulations of the SPL, this also automatically triggered a ten point deduction. This left Gretna with just six points after 28 games and relegation was all but guaranteed.

The financial state of Gretna towards the end of the 2007/08 season was so bad that the SPL had to agree to pay the players salaries to ensure the club could complete the season. The fact Gretna entered administration, it resulted it severe cost-cutting just so they could survive and many members of staff were made redundant.

This included club captain Chris Innes who was made redundant on the 25th March 2008. The following day also saw a further twenty-two players depart the club which included eight first team players. Coaching staff as well as Mileson’s son were also made redundant.

Unsurprisingly, Gretna were officially relegated on the 29th March after they were beaten by St Mirren, 2-0 at Love Street.

Despite all of that, things just continued to get worse as the following weekend on the 5th April, Gretna set the lowest home attendance for a Scottish top flight game. Only 431 people turned up at Fir Park to see Gretna take on Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

There was at least one positive from this dark and hugely depressing season as Gretna went on to win their final game of the season, beating Hearts 1-0 thanks to a Gavin Skelton goal. This at least helped Gretna finish on 13 points, narrowly beating the record for the lowest points tally in Scottish Premiership history.

Liquidation in 2008

Early into 2008, whilst the club continued to struggle in the Scottish top flight, it was revealed by the club’s administrator, Wilson Field, the club had debts of £4M but just £812,000 in assets (Raydale Park). HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) was also owed £600,000 from Gretna in total and it was their threat to wind up the company that precipitated Gretna’s move into administration.

On the 8th May 2008, a deadline of the 17th of May was set to find a buyer to save the club otherwise it would liquidate. After this deadline passed, the future looked very bleak for this village club that rose its way up into the stars, with the remaining employees of the club being made redundant. But there was a report that stated that the club was still in negotiations with an interested buyer.

On the 29th May 2008, the club were relegated down to the third tier of Scottish football due to its dire financial situation and the Scottish Football League also threatened the club with expulsion if a takeover wasn’t completed within a week.

Sadly for Gretna, their fortune had totally run out as a possible takeover fell through on the 1st June. The following day, the administrators confirmed they would look to sell Raydale Park to someone else so that the site can be used for something other than football.

On the 3rd June 2008, Gretna officially resigned from their role in the Scottish Football League and they were replaced by Annan Athletic who won the vote to get in. Annan Athletic replaced Gretna the same way Gretna replaced Airdrieonians way back at the start of the 2000s.

With practically no assets – no players, staff, coaches, stadium, competition to play in – it seemed inevitable that Gretna would dissolve. And on the 8th of August, Gretna were formally liquidated by the club’s administrators.