GRETNA TEN YEARS ON
Whether it was a football fairytale or merely a farce, there can be no denying the rise and fall of this tiny Borders club was truly captivating
FOOTBALL is littered with fairytale stories. The unexpected, monumental rises. The catastrophic falls. Not everybody, of course, lives happily ever after.
Few tales, however, have the right to sit on the same shelf as Gretna.
Bankrolled by the colourful, if controversial, businessman Brooks Mileson, the village team rose from the fourth tier of the Scottish game to the Premier League in consecutive seasons between 2004-07.
They became the lowest-ranked side to ever reach the Scottish Cup final when they faced Hearts at Hampden in 2006 — and basked in the sheer drama of James Grady’s promotion-winning goal in stoppage time at Dingwall in 2007 to reach the top tier.
How quickly, though, the fates turned against them.
The balloon popped, the nightmare of debt ran amok and, by the early weeks of 2008, the alarm bells were not so much ringing as blaring. Gretna were finished. The rollercoaster ride was over. The ticket had expired. It was time to get off.
Debts escalated as Mileson’s health deteriorated, his funding was withdrawn, coaching staff quit, wages weren’t paid and Gretna set the lowest attendance in SPL history (431) in a match against Inverness Caley Thistle on April 5, 2008, in the process.
Less than a month before the club had been thrust into administration. Soon enough it would cease to exist altogether.
A decade on from when the club was kicked out of the leagues and facing a future of genuine uncertainty, Sportsmail made the trip to Raydale Park on a wintry Saturday afternoon to see the team that emerged from the rubble, Gretna 2008, in the Lowland League.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the people of Gretna were simply not prepared to turn their back on football quite so easily.
For Davie Irons, the ride had been longer than most, having joined Gretna as a player in 2002 after they entered the league structure.
Assistant to Rowan Alexander after ending his playing career in 2005, before stepping up to manage the club in 2007, Irons was famously in charge on that miraculous final-day promotion win at Ross County.
He was strapped in for every twist, turn and loop. Now, a decade on, he finds himself back in the Gretna dugout. Spells at Morton, Stenhousemuir and Carlisle United made up the period inbetween, along with a career in the local police force.
But football often brings about strange reunions and when a bond is as strong as that between Irons and Gretna, it should be seen as no surprise that he is back with the club.
Now a police officer in Dumfries and Galloway, Irons and former Gretna team-mate — and police colleague — Andy Aitken work as joint-managers.
‘When you are at a club as long as I was with Gretna, you are always going to retain some sort of connection,’ Irons tells Sportsmail.
‘My youngest son is 15 now so he is a bit young to remember most of it. But now he has the DVDs and has watched the documentaries that have been made so he keeps them on the TV planner and watches them now and again.
‘He could probably tell you them word for word now but you can’t help but look back on those times. That day at Dingwall was the pinnacle of my career, to win promotion to the Premier League.
‘It was wonderful, great times and great memories and I can’t help but look back when I come back here, even now. I get goosebumps coming back in to the stadium and thinking back to those times we had.’
Sitting in the quaint executives’ room at the stadium, pennants hang on the wall from games against the Old Firm to the European escapade against Derry City.
The games Irons so easily recalls all fell under the era of Mileson’s ownership. The businessman and philanthropist had a dream to elevate Gretna to a level that, ultimately, became unsustainable.
It was a controversial period. Not all of Scottish football thought of it as fairytale, given the money being spent.
But that did not stop Mileson from metaphorically kicking every ball with the fans before ill-health took hold.
‘He was just an absolutely unique individual,’ Irons recalls. ‘He just loved to be involved. He would come in and actually cook the pre-match meal for the teams. He just loved being around the place.
‘He kicked every ball with us. He took every defeat personally but he enjoyed the victories just as much as anyone else in the team would — if not more.
‘My weekends would always consist of a phone call in the morning before the game. Obviously I would see him at the games and there would be a lengthy phone call after the game and the next day he would phone me again just to chat about things.
‘Even when we were struggling in the Premier League, he was so supportive and when I left, we kept in touch.’
Irons departed Gretna in February 2008, with the club already in financial trouble.
The hourly phone conversations with Mileson continued and then became back-and-forth texts until the day he died — a day Irons remembers vividly.
‘It got to a point where he
couldn’t speak but he would text me every day,’ he said.
‘I remember texting him the weekend he died and I never got a reply and I thought that’s not like him. We would have these long text conversations.
‘I heard later he had died and it was such a blow to us all. He was someone who had such an impact on my life and everyone who had stepped through the door at Gretna.
‘He was such a huge part of the club and, even though it was a small period of time, it is probably the main period people remember Gretna for.’
At Raydale Park, Mileson is almost always described as a unique character — one of a kind.
In their final season, the colourful backer withdrew funds for the club in March, beginning the process of eventual liquidation. Stadium announcer Ian Richmond, for one, recalls Mileson’s arrival at the club was not met with unanimous approval.
‘I’ve gone through mixed emotions about Brooks,’ he said. ‘In the long term, it wasn’t good for the club but I think, really, he had the best intentions.
‘I know we are now talking in retrospect but I wasn’t actually in favour of Brooks taking over.
‘I thought it wasn’t a good step because it took it away from the people. The football club is more than just its spectators and the people on the park.’
Every fan at Raydale has their own version of events, but the one striking symmetry is that ten years on, they want to look forward — not back.
Richmond moved to the area from Kent around the time the club entered the league structure and it soon became an addiction.
Without a previous affiliation to the club, he is now the match-day announcer and it was clear he is only one of a number who willingly give up their time to do whatever is deemed necessary for the club.
Part of the 12,000-strong throng at Hampden for the penalty shootout defeat to Hearts, Richmond is naturally reflective on yesteryear.
And with his concerns about Brooks coming to the boil during their time in the top flight, it was a season that brought drama of all the wrong kind.
For lifelong supporter Jason Hampson, it was his worst period as a Gretna fan.
‘I hated it (being in the top flight),’ he admitted. ‘There was no atmosphere and, at that time, a lot of our fans were actually elderly so they couldn’t travel.
‘They were missing out because they couldn’t afford to pay £15-20 on a bus every single week or if you took your car it was a lot of petrol. It was like an away game every week.’
Life in the big league began with a 4-0 defeat at ‘home’ to Falkirk — matches were played at Motherwell’s Fir Park due to the unsuitability of Raydale — when the day’s main talking point was former manager Alexander.
He was refused entry to the ground as Irons was promoted to the role of manager — a muddy situation that set the tone for the club’s final year.
Administration and a mandatory ten-point deduction followed in March as Irons and others left the club due to a lack of paid wages. The club entered a state of total disarray. And, on June 3, Gretna FC wrote its final page.
Yet, from those ashes rose a new club.
Richmond’s pride spills over when talk turns to the side that emerged after an emergency meeting was held at a local community centre almost ten years ago.
With the work of chief executive Stuart Rome identified as a major reason why fans have a club to come to watch each week, Gretna 2008 is a story in its own right.
‘The past should be remembered but people are proud of what they have done with Gretna 2008 — it is a new club,’ continues Richmond.
‘This was all started again from scratch because the club finished. It’s even more of a great story because local people got together and started a football club.
‘Does it feel like a long ten years? No, it doesn’t. It honestly feels like two minutes. It has just flown past.
‘I was at Hampden for the Cup final. People came from all over that day, I just wish we had their phone numbers!
‘Someone reminded me recently that it was soon to be ten years and we’ve come a long way. Most people involved now are just amateurs and supporters who have muddled their way through on goodwill and energy and desire to see the club prosper.’
The aims are different now. As is the budget and level of opposition. But with fewer than 100 people huddled together to watch matches in the Lowland League, there was a sense that many enjoyed it the same — if not more — than when the wins came thick and fast a decade ago. A title win would give the club a chance to get back in League Two while a top-four finish would bring Betfred Cup football next season and, for Aitken and Irons, that is the minimum they demand.
‘We are still a scalp to a lot of teams in the Lowland League,’ says Irons, with Gretna currently in sixth position in the 16-team division.
‘Teams are often very happy if they go on and beat us and I tell the players to take that as a compliment. We are still a scalp and Gretna is still a name that people remember in football terms. It is nothing to be ashamed of.’
Raydale Park houses both the memories and the people — it is the linchpin of both clubs, old and new, and when it was sold off in 2008, the keys were all but thrown away.
The fear was palpable that the club may never return.
‘If we hadn’t got the ground back I don’t know if Gretna would have a team now, to be honest,’ admits 56-year-old Irons.
‘Credit to the guys working hard behind the scenes, the committee, the fans and all the volunteers. If it wasn’t for them getting us back here, it might have been one of these clubs that drifted and disappeared into the depths.
‘It’s great to be back. It’s not as glamorous as it used to be, it’s not as tidy but it’s still home.’