Gretna FC: A Marriage That Went Wrong

FourFourTwo

The Scottish border town beloved by elopers witnessed three consecutive promotions to the top flight and UEFA Cup qualification, but by 2008 the Anvils suffered the early death of their benefactor, Brooks Mileson, as the club was liquidated. This is the story of the Gretna marriage that went wrong.  #gretna #scotland #scottishfootball #scottishpremiership

Transcript

00:00Ever heard the one about the record-breaking team who went from non-league to the top flight and

00:07played European football in five years and then fell into oblivion just two years later? No,

00:13didn't think so. This is a story that makes what's happened at Wrexham in recent years look pretty

00:18normal when you dig into it. It's got everything. A chain-smoking insurance magnate, one of Sir

00:23Bobby Robson's most trusted lieutenants, a free-scoring doctor and much, much more. This

00:29is Gretna, a marriage that went wrong. Welcome to Gretna, historically beloved for aficionados

00:36of matrimony owing to Scotland's more relaxed attitudes to marriage which existed up to 1847.

00:41This small town in the borders has a few other claims to fame. It's got the Loch Marban stone,

00:47it was an important customs post in the 17th century and the factory there made a load of

00:52cordite in World War One to help British firearms. But for a few years it was also the place where

00:57one of the most rapid rises ever in European football history took place that brought Gretna

01:02FC from the English Northern Premier League to the Scottish Premier League via a Scottish Cup final

01:08and an extremely brief sojourn in the UEFA Cup. And it all starts with a man born in a completely

01:14different country from where the club is based, England. This is Brooks John Joseph Myleson,

01:20born as one of five in the Pennywell estate in Sunderland, notable prior to his investment in Gretna,

01:24which we'll get to later, for breaking his back aged 11 after falling into a quarry and being

01:29told he'd never walk again, then winning the bronze medal at the 1967 English Cross Country Junior

01:34Championships and making somewhere between £50 and £75 million through insurance companies.

01:40Mind you, he had a few goes at business before he got it right. He was director of 14 companies in

01:44his career. To some, Brooks was a dreamer and a philanthropist whose generosity knew no bounds.

01:50For some, Reid Gretna players, who were afforded extravagant lifestyles throughout his tenure at

01:55the club. To others, he was an egomaniac who left a trail of devastation in his wake.

02:00Anyway, while he was making his millions in Carlisle, across the border Gretna FC were tolling in the

02:06Northern Premier League where they'd been for 10 straight years, having failed previously to gain

02:10election to the Scottish pyramid. They'd had a couple of FA Cup runs in their time, but had pretty much

02:14failed to bother historians for the most part. In 2002, one club's demise was another's moment to rise.

02:21Airdrie owners folded, despite finishing runners up in Scotland's second tier that year,

02:25and Gretna won election to play in Scotland at the expense of the newly formed Airdrie United.

02:30The club would enter the league in the Scottish third division. Expectations weren't exactly high,

02:35but at least they wouldn't need to go to England for every away game from now on. At the time,

02:40Gretna averaged crowds of just over 400 at Raydale Park, which isn't actually that bad considering

02:46only 3,000 people live there. Brooks saw the potential at the club. He'd been pouring money

02:51into supporters' trusts at Stockport, Berwick, Ayr, Dundee and Dundee United, and having failed to take

02:57over Carlisle United, a £20,000 donation to Gretna's youth development scheme gave him skin in the

03:03Scottish game. Brooks came to the club with deep pockets and a defined vision, telling the club's manager at the

03:10time, Rowan Alexander, I want to be in the Scottish Premier League in five years. Conservatively,

03:15he'd have called him misguided, but history tells us he was anything but.

03:20Their debut campaign ended with a third-placed finish in the bottom tier in 2004. That was the

03:26springboard, and Brooks began to splash the cash. Practising doctor and prolific striker Kenny Duker

03:31joined from East Fife, and that campaign brought them the league by 20 points, a plus 101 goal difference,

03:37and 38 goals in just 36 games for the good doctor. There were more high-profile arrivals from big

03:43Scottish clubs and Gretna made it back-to-back promotions in 2006 and won the league by March of

03:48that year. What really caught the public's attention though was their run in the Scottish Cup. They beat

03:53four First Division sides on their way to the Hampden Park showpiece to face Hearts, and became the first

03:59club ever to do so from the third tier. They lost the game on penalties after a 1-1 draw, despite the manager

04:05going full kilt and sporran for the occasion. But they did gain entry to the UEFA Cup for the next

04:10campaign. Now you might be thinking that the wider football world was willing them on as the plucky

04:14underdog. Everyone loves a football Cinderella story, right? Well, Gretna proved that this isn't

04:20always the case. Envious glances from elsewhere and cries of annoyance over the wages they were paying

04:25while playing in front of crowds in the hundreds meant that the footballing fraternity were waiting

04:29for it all to fail. You might have guessed though that the Gretna house was in fact built on sand,

04:34but we aren't quite there yet. As the next season rolled around, Gretna were in the second tier and

04:39heading into Europe. They didn't get the glamour tie they'd hoped for though, and got roundly thrashed

04:447-3 on aggregate by Derry City in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup. If they'd won,

04:49they'd have faced Paris Saint-Germain. Brooks had continued to bankroll the club's endeavours though,

04:54and the spending was unrelenting. In came Sir Bobby Robson's former assistant Mick Wadsworth to run

04:59things, and he later said, I saw more Jeeps in the club's car park than in the Normandy landing.

05:05Everything was coming out of the chairman's pocket though, and while results on the pitch continued

05:08to get Gretna nearer to the top flight, the line of credit was beginning to run out. Things started

05:13going wrong when the architect of their rise, manager Rowan Alexander, was put on gardening leave

05:19when their form hit a wobble. They were top at the time, but Brooks felt it was the end of the road

05:23for him. Without Alexander, Gretna did their best to blow an 11-point lead, and questions were being

05:29asked as to whether or not the club really wanted to make the jump to the SPL. It all came down to a

05:34dramatic final day when it looked like St Johnston under Owen Coyle would pip them to automatic

05:38promotion. James Grady scored for Gretna though, and the helicopter that was en route to present the

05:42trophy to Coyle at Hamilton had to divert to Ross County. The dream was realised for Gretna, but the

05:48nightmare was just about to begin. They'd become the first club to go from bottom to top with three

05:53consecutive promotions in Scotland or England, but they definitely weren't ready for the big leagues.

05:58Cries of derision went up from other clubs over the state of their stadium. It couldn't hold the

06:036,000 fans required for the SPL. A deal was reached to share Motherwell's fur park for home games,

06:08while Raydale was renovated, but inside the club, the realisation was hitting that their benefactor

06:13was living beyond his means. He'd paid for everything for staff and players at the club, but his wealth

06:19didn't resemble that of an oligarch's bottomless pit or come from a nation state. With an unsustainable

06:24business model and no wholesale recruitment in the summer of 2007, the Gretna bubble very quickly

06:30burst. Try as they might, the team just couldn't compete at the highest level and they lost 25 of

06:36their 38 SPL games, and the club's infrastructure creaked under the expectations of playing at the top

06:42level. But forgetting all the players' boots for a game against Rangers brought some gallows humour at the

06:47time. Rumours of missed payments for wages became commonplace and the owner's health was beginning

06:52to suffer. Aged just 60, he was admitted to hospital with a brain infection following successive stomach

06:58operations and suffering chronic fatigue syndrome. And that was the beginning of the end for Gretna.

07:03Without their benefactor, they were staring into financial abyss. They were quickly placed into

07:07administration, given a 10-point deduction and liquidation looked inevitable. Wadsworth even sold

07:13his car to pay the players. Their only SPL campaign ended in April 2008 in front of 431 fans and saw

07:21them amass just 13 league points. Gretna's financial issues meant they'd go back to where they started in

07:26the fourth tier, because they couldn't guarantee they could play all their games the next season.

07:31August 2008 brought liquidation and in November that year, Brooks Myleson died after suffering a heart

07:37attack at home and falling into a pond. His fortune gone and the club he loved, now, in oblivion.

07:44So that's the story of the meteoric rise and stratospheric fall of Gretna FC. Less a failed

07:49marriage in keeping with the town's history, more a spectacular love affair that burned bright

07:54but brought destruction to all involved.

Category

Transcript

Recommended