Gretna F.C.
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| Gretna F.C. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Gretna Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | The Black and Whites | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Founded | 1946 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Raydale Park, Gretna | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Capacity | 2,200 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman |  Ron MacGregor |
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| Manager | Rowan Alexander |
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| League | Scottish First Division | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005-06 | Scottish Second Division, 1st | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Gretna Football Club is a Scottish football club from Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway, currently playing in the Scottish Football League. Their current manager is former player Rowan Alexander. Owned by businessman Brooks Mileson, who has poured vast amounts of money into the club, they have gone from being a non-league side playing in the Northern Premier League First Division in England to the Scottish First Division in four years. They are current contenders for the First Division championship, which would lead them into the Scottish Premier League.
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[edit] 2006/07 Season
Gretna are playing during the current season in the First Division, after easily winning the Second Division in the 2005/06 season. They also competed in the qualifying stages UEFA Cup, after they were runners-up in the Scottish Cup. They played their home UEFA Cup match at Fir Park in Motherwell.
Gretna's first match in Europe was in the UEFA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round against Derry City of League of Ireland. Gretna's first match in Europe ended up in disappointment however, as the First Division outfit succumbed to a 5-1 defeat; they were then eliminated following a 2-2 draw in the second leg in Northern Ireland.
[edit] History
[edit] Period in English Football
Gretna FC was founded in 1946 and played locally in Dumfries. The following year, they made the unusual move of transferring to a league run by the English Football Association, the Carlisle and District League, despite being a Scottish club. This reflects Gretna's location on the border between the two countries. They remained in this league for all but one season until 1982, moving to the newly created second division of the Northern League. They won the league and were promoted immediately, before back-to-back championship wins in the first division, in 1990/1991 and 1991/1992, resulted in their promotion to the first division of the Northern Premier League.
During the 1990s, they also became the first club from Scotland to appear in the FA Cup proper since Rangers had done so in 1887. The club, however, saw its future in Scottish football and applied twice to the Scottish league in 1993 and 1999. To help boost their later application, they played a Rangers XI team in a game to raise money for victims of the Lockerbie air disaster. To their credit, Gretna won 2-1 against a strong team.
[edit] Period in Scottish Football
In 2002 Gretna were elected to the Scottish Football League, at the third attempt, following the extinction of Airdrieonians because of financial problems. They were promoted from Division Three after three seasons, and won the Scottish Football League Division Two in 2006.
They were also runners-up in the Scottish Cup, having reached the competition final for the first time in their history, after beating Dundee 3-0 on April 1 2006. This makes them the first team from Division 2 to reach the final since a third tier was introduced in the 1975/76 season. [1] They lost to Hearts in the final on penalty kicks, after a 1-1 draw after extra time. This did, however, make them the first team from the third tier of their domestic league to qualify for the UEFA Cup. They qualified since Hearts already had a place in the Champions League. During their seasons of successive promotions they scored an incredible 227 goals with 130 coming in the 04/05 season and a further 97 coming a season later. The 130 scored in the third division was 1 goal short of the British league record of goals scored in a season
The club's success after the first relatively uneventful few seasons in the Scottish Third Division can be explained by the funding of managing director Brooks Mileson, a multi-millionaire. The club has attracted new fans from across the UK and further afield as they continue to win matches. Although some claim that these fans are merely 'fairweather' supporters, the club is committed to several "grass-roots" projects bankrolled by Mileson, such as free tickets for schoolchildren as far afield as Dumfries, and youth coaching. These are indicative of Gretna's desire to become a self-sustaining football club.
Striker Kenny Deuchar has been an important player during Gretna's rise, smashing a number of club and league goalscoring records. Gretna have continue to invest heavily in their playing squad and it is said that they are currently paying the highest salaries outside the SPL and more probably within the top 10 highest salaries in Scotland. Although the population of Gretna is only 2,705 (as of 2001), their current stadium is being replaced with one which is up to SPL standards (6,000 minimum capacity).
[edit] Honours
- Northern League Division Two - Runners-up; 1982/1983
- Northern League Division One - Champions (2); 1990/1991, 1991-1992 - Runners-up; 1989/1990
- Scottish Football League Division Three - Champions; 2004-05
- Scottish Football League Division Two - Champions; 2005-06
- Scottish Cup - Runners-Up; 2005-06
[edit] Current squad
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[edit] Out on loan
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[edit] Managers
Rowan Alexander (November 2000 - Present) [1]- Davie Irons (Temporary Manager - March 2007 - end of season - during Rowan Alexander's absence.) [2]
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