Jump to content

Gretna - Living (and dying) the Dream


Recommended Posts

When you think about it, those 8.5k or so hangers on who attended the cup final supporting Gretna are just the absolutely worst c***s.

They were either pathetically naive to the whole Gretna 'dream' situation which shows a ludicrious lack of understanding or they knew the situation but still decided to jump on the bandwagon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you think about it, those 8.5k or so hangers on who attended the cup final supporting Gretna are just the absolutely worst c***s.
They were either pathetically naive to the whole Gretna 'dream' situation which shows a ludicrious lack of understanding or they knew the situation but still decided to jump on the bandwagon.


Most were probably Hibs fans, tbf
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the TV coverage of the cup final that day they said Mileson had bussed in Carlisle fans for the day, they even interviewed some outside the ground from memory.

We drew 3-3 with them at Rugby Park in one of the worst games I've ever seen. It was played in a maelstrom as well which made the whole thing that much worse as wind, rain, biting cold and sudden darkness converged with two dreadful fitba teams to make for a truly miserable experience. We had to come back from being down twice if my memory isn't playing tricks. We had a right weird team out that day, too. One of the centre backs was injured pre-match, so Gary Locke, who hadn't been in the matchday squad I don't think, was drafted in to play in midfield and our usual defensive midfielder, James Fowler, was forced to centre back. A barely able to walk let alone run Locke, who was a former defender (admittedly he'd been a full back, but he'd then been a central defensive mid, so if someone had to be shunted to a makeshift centre back he'd have been less calamitous possibly than Fowler), standing in the centre midfield doing nowt, whilst Fow, who had never played centre back, had a horror show in defence. Another Jim Jefferies tactical masterclass. I mind, possibly our third, goal being scored by David Fernandez and then him running to celebrate with the physio as that was his comeback from a huge injury lay off that began when Gary Caldwell took him out of the game against Celtic ages before and he was continually picking up more injuries during recovery.

For all that fat St Johnstone c**t from the BBC claims to hate them now and says he saw through the whole thing, the night before the cup final him and the fat Motherwell c**t presented a programme on the BBC where they praised both Mileson and Romanov (another chancing conman halfwit) endlessly. So it's fine for him to be revisionist now, but when his paymasters said they were flavour of the month he happily gobbled the cock, stroked the shaft, cradled the balls and swallowed the load whole just like the rest of his media cronies at the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, SimonLichtie said:

When you think about it, those 8.5k or so hangers on who attended the cup final supporting Gretna are just the absolutely worst c***s.

They were either pathetically naive to the whole Gretna 'dream' situation which shows a ludicrious lack of understanding or they knew the situation but still decided to jump on the bandwagon.

The  majority of folk in the Gretna end were 'neutrals' that day. I knew of a few folk who weren't Gretna fans who went along that day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember the first time I went there, it was the game a previous poster mentioned and the story about the gates being opened and folk flinging money in a bucket is true because I was one of them. Kick off was approaching and the queue was still huge, so they obviously panicked when they clearly didn't have the resources to handle the crowd so they just decided to open the gates.

There was a handful of portaloos behind the golf stand and it just resulted in people pissing up against either the wall or the scaffolding wherever they could find a place. 

We lost 6-1, 6-0 and 4-0 three games in a row to them. I remember one of the games standing in that glorified bus shelter at the sideline and thinking about the arrogance of the c***s paying a squad worth of players in the lower leagues well into 4 figures for a ground that wouldn't have looked out of place in the juniors. The 6-1 game down there I remember David Graham running rings round our players and we had Billy Dodds blowing out of his arse and its probably the least unenjoyable all round experience I've had at a football match.

I still hate the people and the town. The air of fakeness and arrogance about their fans and the locals was blatant. Our fans were barred from going to most of the pubs to the point I know people were drinking in Dumfries or Carlisle then getting the train straight there. Their social club thought our fans would cause trouble and never let us in. I'm sure they done this with most clubs they played at home throughout the "journey" who carried any sort of reasonable travelling support like Morton.

Edited by Snakebite
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎29‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 12:00, mizfit said:

 

 


A Hibs fan in my year did attempt to organise a bus to the final.

As far as I know it was just his family that ended up travelling.

 

 

Big family?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where to start...

Their first ever league game was at home to us - the SFL figuring we’d bring a good support as we tried to recover from two successive relegations. We sold our allocation and within 18 seconds we were 1-0 down. It ended 1-1 with Alexander coming on as a sub and getting an ovation from the away fans.

Later that season at Raydale Eddie Annand scored the only goal of the game in a real shitfest. Our support was cut that day as the game clashed with a Scotland game, but was easily the drunkest I’d ever seen our fans. Fairly sure I gave Toby a lift to work after the game.

The season they won the 2nd they won 2-0 at Scapa and Alexander was a bit OTT with his celebrations. They then won 3-1 at Raydale - I remember hearing some Ton fans left early but on taking their seats on their bus (a double decker) they realised that they could still see the game. The 2-2 draw at Scapa from 0-2 was a belter - another 5 minuted and we’d have won. Other have mentioned the 2-1 win at Raydale - wish I’d seen it.

A couple of seasons later they were in the Premier and we were drawn together in the Scottish Cup - a 2-2 draw at Scapa. The replay was moved to Palmerston - and the winners were due to play Queens away, leading to loads of questions as to what would happen if Gretna won. In the end it became a moot point as we horsed them 3-0.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, AyrshireTon said:

Later that season at Raydale Eddie Annand scored the only goal of the game in a real shitfest. Our support was cut that day as the game clashed with a Scotland game, but was easily the drunkest I’d ever seen our fans. Fairly sure I gave Toby a lift to work after the game.

The 2-2 draw at Scapa from 0-2 was a belter - another 5 minuted and we’d have won. Other have mentioned the 2-1 win at Raydale - wish I’d seen it.

That was the day Scotland beat Iceland 2-1 at Hampden. I have no idea where or how they got it, perhaps they'd asked for the favour in a hotel or pub that was showing it anyway, but getting back on the Albert bus after the game someone produced a VHS recording of the Scotland game which had finished at the same time as our game :lol: We watched it on the way back up and IIRC it was an even bigger shitfest than the Morton game.

That 2-2 was ridiculous - Chris Templeman got played through on goal in the 94th minute while Gretna had everyone up the park and had a five yard head start on Chris Innes. He was so outrageously slow that Innes had managed to catch up with him before he reached the box and Templeman cut back inside him and shot from outside the box when any other player would have been away and in on the goalkeeper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
You could feel that stand shaking as well. Chris Millar scored twice in three minutes to put us 2-0 up down there and there were tremendous scenes when the second went in, but you could genuinely feel the wobble when everyone jumped out of their seats. They'd added a back and a roof to it by then but it still felt dodgy as f**k.
Say what now? Millar scoring twice in three minutes? I'd be happy if he could muster up two goals a season for us.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gretna were a largely anonymous outfit of Unibond League Geordies in their first season before Mileson came in.

2004/5 was a ridiculous season. I think the play offs were relatively new and for some reason only the champions went up. We lost four times in a row to Gretna as did most teams in the league. At New Year we pushed them hard in a 2-3 defeat at Links Park and were very unlucky not to have taken something from that game.

A 4-1 drubbing down at Raydsle, a game where Martin Wood missed a sitter just before half time and then the roof came in horribly in the second half, was perhaps our low point against them. I do remember some god awful attempts at literary prose from David Holdsworth in their programmed as he discussed the youth team, and a pompous article on how Brooks was considering hiring a plane for fans who wished to go and see Gilfillan play for the Failed Statelet's U-21s.

The Gretna fans themselves were bizarre sorts with flags air horns and foam hands who very clearly hadn't a clue who the players were. I remember feeling sorry for the hundred or so old timers from NPL days who must have enjoyed some of the ride but ultimately had seen their team disappear and be replaced by what looked like a pilot episode of Sky Sports Harchester United, beamed down from outer space. That now demolished narrow enclosure was full of holes, and was like standing in a filing cabinet without the drawers.

Was very bizarre seeing the likes  of Alan Main and Tosh strolling through Third Division games in second gear and the season was a non event before it even started. Ultimately Montrose's Spice Boys just missed out on the new fangled play offs as they just couldn't be arsed being consistent.

Mileson was taken very seriously by boards and fans at that time. Personally, he was a quiet sort, and made a donation if some kind to our supporters trust. I think people began to see through the charade in 2006- those that went to football regularly, anyway.

Lucozade and Marlboro Lights journalism was the Gretna equivalent of succulent lamb and only when Mick Wadsworth was left to steer the crippled wreckage over the line of their final season did the media begin to drop the fairytale nonsense. Most of that squad now play in the lower leagues in Scotland or the National League down south.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...