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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.

2006/07 Season

Gretna will play next season in the First Division, after easily winning the Second Division in the 2005/06 season. They will also be competing in the UEFA Cup, after they were runners-up in the Scottish FA Cup. They will be playing their UEFA Cup matches at Fir Park in Motherwell.

History

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 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 the Lockerbie air disaster. To their credit, Gretna won 2-1 against a strong team.

Period in Scottish Football

In 2002 Gretna were elected to the Scottish Football League, at the third attempt, following the extinction of 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 FA Cup, having reached the competition final for the first time in their history, after beating Dundee 3-0 on April 1st 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. * They lost to Heart of Midlothian 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 as the cup winners, Hearts already had a place in the Champions League.

The club's success can be explained by the funding of managing director Brooks Mileson, a multi-millionaire who is a keen fan. 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 outwith the SPL. 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).

Honours

Current squad

Players out on loan

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External links

1946 establishments | Scottish football clubs | Sport in Dumfries and Galloway

Gretna FC | Gretna FC | Gretna F.C. | Gretna FC | 格雷纳足球俱乐部

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Gretna F.C.".

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