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The club that vanished- The story of Gretna


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We only ever played Gretna once competitively - a League Cup tie at Raydale in 2005/2006 season. We won 1-0 with Bryn Halliwell having a stormer of a game (yes, you read that correctly) to help us through as we went on to make the final.

Given that, I was never really arsed about Gretna in the way that fans of other clubs were. I do recall in the early Mileson days watching them play the Shire at Firs Park and the home fans were giving their players all sorts of stick in terms of the money they were reportedly earning. I'm sure Davie Bingham turned round and told one of them to simply "f**k off".

What I will say though is that I never bought into the fairytale stuff that the media continually suggested. It was never sustainable; their fanbase never really had the basis to grow much more than maybe around 1500 people (despite Mileson's claims that they would attract cross-border support) and the move to Motherwell for the SPL was always going to end in tears. The proclaimed "astonishing rise" was not astonishing at all as they had an absolutely outrageous budget in which to attract players that their opponents from the Third to First Divisions could only dream of doing.

I felt sorry for those who lost their jobs but when you look at clubs who suffered financial problems - ourselves included - in Scotland in recent years, the majority were because of someone's ego trip. Gretna were no different.

Fair play to the fans who created the new club and bought Raydale to get the team playing there again. For the Gretna fans who followed them through from their Unibond League deals, I had sympathy for them so good luck to them.

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The proclaimed "astonishing rise" was not astonishing at all as they had an absolutely outrageous budget in which to attract players that their opponents from the Third to First Divisions could only dream of doing.

Aye, Stevie Tosh leaving Aberdeen for Third Division Gretna because they were paying more. Mental.

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That summed the whole thing up in a nutshell. Dunfermline offering Darren and Derek Young higher wages than Aberdeen in 2003, or Craig Brewster a higher salary than Hibernian, the year before while in the SPL looking back now seems utterly ridiculous, but Gretna took it to another level. They should've been hosing everyone in those leagues while signing players from that level!

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Quotes from Rowan Alexander in 2006. Source article in The Herald.

"One or two managers prior to games say things in the media that make you think we're a money team, which is wrong."

"People knock the resources Brooks has given me and say we've bought our success but that's a lot of shite"

No wonder they were so hated. Not only did (1) they spend wildly, but (2) they claimed they didn't spend much, (3) the media - led by the hopelessly out of touch Chick Young - trumpeted the whole "fairytale" nonsense, and (4) their manager was the most dislikeable man in Scottish football.

Good riddance.

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Don't see why everyone is criticising Gretna the reason why players joined was because they were at a club that had a dream with a owner who had a dream in the end

it went bad but I bet at least one of the people saying there players were there for the money don't think that about the rangers

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Three things spring to mind -

1. Eighteen bloody seconds.

2. Rowan totally milking it after Deuchar had scored their 2nd in the 2-0 defeat at Scapa.

3. Having to have a cup replay at Palmerston, which was our last meeting.

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A story I heard around that time was that Mileson was not in the least interested in Gretna, he was Carlisle United man through and through, and his plan (similar to what happened to Airdrie/Clydebank) was to take control at Gretna while Carlisle United were struggling, having lost their league position in 2004 and were financially weak, if they had gone into administration he would have bought the name and the park (sound familiar) and moved Gretna to Carlisle. With a 18,000 seater stadium and a much bigger potential fanbase, the club had a very good chance of sustaining a place in the SPL. However Carlisle recovered and his plan was scuppered.

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Fair play to the fans who created the new club and bought Raydale to get the team playing there again. For the Gretna fans who followed them through from their Unibond League deals, I had sympathy for them so good luck to them.

Agreed.

Give Gretna some credit, at least they never spent in the region £36M winning the 3rd tier of Scottish Football, that would just be silly.

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Quotes from Rowan Alexander in 2006. Source article in The Herald.

"One or two managers prior to games say things in the media that make you think we're a money team, which is wrong."

"People knock the resources Brooks has given me and say we've bought our success but that's a lot of shite"

No wonder they were so hated. Not only did (1) they spend wildly, but (2) they claimed they didn't spend much, (3) the media - led by the hopelessly out of touch Chick Young - trumpeted the whole "fairytale" nonsense, and (4) their manager was the most dislikeable man in Scottish football.

Good riddance.

Agree completely.

Brooks Mileson used to say something along the lines of "It's not money, it's Rowan's genius management" repeatedly.

I'm not sure what was worse, buying their way through the leagues pretending they weren't, having 4 fans or actually suggesting Rowan Alexander was a competent football manager.

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Agree completely.

Brooks Mileson used to say something along the lines of "It's not money, it's Rowan's genius management" repeatedly.

I'm not sure what was worse, buying their way through the leagues pretending they weren't, having 4 fans or actually suggesting Rowan Alexander was a competent football manager.

What he's done post Gretna speaks volumes.

Irons is equally inept.

Hopefully one of them replace Mark Roberts should he depart.

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