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The club that vanished- The story of Gretna


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Who were Gretna's fans, and what are they doing now? I remember they had a poor away support at Pittodrie, but there were definitely people there.

Thinking back to the idea of Gretna being in the Premiership it seems weirder now than it did at the time. All I really remember of them was their cup final against Hearts.

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People say they used to average about 150 in the Northern League. I don't know if figures are available that far back anywhere.

As has often been the experience, they doubled and more on joining SFL. In their 2 "normal" SFL3 seasons they averaged 408 and 465.

Then their ascent began and they averaged 895; then 1,304 in SFL2; then 1,602 in SFL1; then 2,637 (at Fir Park) in SPL.

Last season Gretna 2008 averaged 143 according to figures from their website. I think that has been typical in recent seasons. So they are basically back where they were.

'08 got a bit more in their initial EOSL seasons, IIRC, certainly their away support was strong: dozens and dozens. They spent their first year at an athletics ground in Annan.

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Who were Gretna's fans, and what are they doing now? I remember they had a poor away support at Pittodrie, but there were definitely people there.

Thinking back to the idea of Gretna being in the Premiership it seems weirder now than it did at the time. All I really remember of them was their cup final against Hearts.

One of them died dunno what happened to the other one.

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Seems that plenty of fans are still seething over defeats to a diddy wee village team and want blood still, even with the corpse rotting ages ago.

Can't speak for anyone else, but any lingering bad taste in the mouth relating to Gretna is more down to the fawning media coverage than anything to do with the club itself.

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I've had the 'pleasure' of watching Thistle against Celtic teams containing Larrson, Sutton, Di Cannio etc and Rangers sides with Laudrup, Gascoigne and Ronald De Boer, yet none of those sides embarrassed and owned us anywhere near as much as Gretna.

f**k them.

I think that says more about us under Dick Campbell than it does about them to be honest...

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In hindsight it's amazing how well Gretna did by buying players from the higher leagues then winning the league they are in, while having a small fan base, a very poor ground, no merchandising or television rights and very few (if any) supporters in the mainstream media.

Compare that to another team trying to do the same bottom to top league transition.

Edited by Casual Bystander
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Can't speak for anyone else, but any lingering bad taste in the mouth relating to Gretna is more down to the fawning media coverage than anything to do with the club itself.

Yup. I despised them long before they played us for the first time and knocked us out of the Scottish Cup. The constant pish in the papers, the living the dream nonsense, the portrayal of Alexander as some sort of managerial genius and that the players were there because of his vision, not the ridiculous sums of money being thrown about. Instead they were guys who slaved all day at their jobs during the week, tended the fields on Saturday morning and had some of Granny's special soup for lunch before taking on and beating all comers.

Edited by Stu
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Just me who thinks that Mileson's son looks a bit like Craig Whyte?

Aye, he does a bit but after being dragged unconscious from a house fire.

Struggled to hate Gretna but never liked the whole throw money at it thing. Was always destined for a bad end.

Recall going all the way to Fir Park to watch the Dons play them, I think on a freezing Boxing Day. Main stand the only stand open. Shitty 1-1 I think. I struggled to see much good in that Aberdeen side let alone Gretna.

Programme needed to hear more from the folk who were left high and dry for a bit of balance.

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  • 5 years later...
On ‎23‎/‎11‎/‎2014 at 19:20, Hammer Jag said:

Get Rowan Alexander back into football. The guys is fucking bonkers, but box-office bonkers.

Scottish Football Needs A Strong Rowan Alexander

#SFNASRA

Mega bump.

According to posts in their thread: after 12yrs out of management - bar a spell as Glenafton assistant in 2010 - Rowan Alexander has succeeded Chris Humphrey at... Gretna 2008!

GD10502375.jpg

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