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

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

01:34Junior Championships 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,

02:45considering only 3,000 people live there. Brooks saw the potential at the club. He'd been pouring

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

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

03:03in the Scottish game. Brooks came to the club with deep pockets and a defined vision,

03:09telling the club's manager at the time, Rowan Alexander,

03:11I want to be in the Scottish Premier League in five years.

03:14Conservatively, he'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.

03:25That was the springboard, and Brooks began to splash the cash. Practising doctor and prolific striker

03:30Kenny Duker joined from East Fife, and that campaign brought them the league by 20 points,

03:35a plus 101 goal difference, and 38 goals in just 36 games for the good doctor.

03:41There were more high-profile arrivals from big Scottish clubs, and Gretna made it back-to-back

03:45promotions in 2006, and won the league by March of that year.

03:49What really caught the public's attention though, was their run in the Scottish Cup.

03:53They beat four First Division sides on their way to the Hampden Park showpiece to face Hearts,

03:58and became the first club ever to do so from the third tier.

04:01They lost the game on penalties after a 1-1 draw, despite the manager going full-kilt

04:06and sporran for the occasion. But they did gain entry to the UEFA Cup for the next campaign.

04:11Now you might be thinking that the wider football world was willing them on as the plucky underdog.

04:15Everyone loves a football Cinderella story, right? Well, Gretna proved that this isn't always the case.

04:21Envious glances from elsewhere and cries of annoyance over the wages they were paying while playing in

04:26front of crowds in the hundreds meant that the footballing fraternity were waiting for it all to fail.

04:30You might have guessed though that the Gretna house was in fact built on sand, but we aren't quite

04:35there yet. As the next season rolled around, Gretna were in the second tier and heading into Europe.

04:40They didn't get the glamour tie they'd hoped for though, and got roundly thrashed 7-3 on aggregate

04:45by Derry City in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.

04:48If they'd won, they'd have faced Paris Saint-Germain.

04:51Brooks had continued to bankroll the club's endeavours though, and the spending was unrelenting.

04:56In came Sir Bobby Robson's former assistant Mick Wadsworth to run things, and he later said,

05:01I 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.

05:13Things started going wrong when the architect of their rise, manager Rowan Alexander,

05:17was put on gardening leave when their form hit a wobble. They were top at the time,

05:22but Brooks felt it was the end of the road for him. Without Alexander, Gretna did their best to

05:26blow an 11-point lead, and questions were being asked as to whether or not the club

05:30really wanted to make the jump to the SPL. It all came down to a dramatic final day when

05:35it looked like St Johnston under Owen Coyle would pip them to automatic promotion.

05:39James 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,

05:47but the nightmare was just about to begin. They'd become the first club to go from bottom to top

05:53with three consecutive promotions in Scotland or England, but they definitely weren't ready

05:57for the big leagues. Cries of derision went up from other clubs over the state of their stadium.

06:02It couldn't hold the 6,000 fans required for the SPL. A deal was reached to share Motherwell's

06:07fur park for home games while Raydale was renovated, but inside the club, the realisation was hitting

06:13that their benefactor was living beyond his means. He'd paid for everything for staff and players at

06:18the club, but his wealth didn't resemble that of an oligarch's bottomless pit or come from a nation

06:23state. With an unsustainable business model and no wholesale recruitment in the summer of 2007,

06:28the Gretna bubble very quickly burst. Try as they might, the team just couldn't compete at the highest

06:34level and they lost 25 of their 38 SPL games, and the club's infrastructure creaked under the

06:40expectations of playing at the top level. But forgetting all the players' boots for a game

06:45against Rangers brought some gallows humour at the time. Rumours of missed payments for

06:49wages became commonplace, and the owner's health was beginning to suffer. Aged just 60,

06:54he was admitted to hospital with a brain infection following successive stomach operations and suffering

06:59chronic fatigue syndrome. And that was the beginning of the end for Gretna. Without their benefactor,

07:04they were staring into financial abyss. They were quickly placed into administration,

07:08given a 10-point deduction and liquidation looked inevitable. Wadsworth even sold his car to pay the

07:14players. Their only SPL campaign ended in April 2008 in front of 431 fans and saw them amass just

07:2113 league points. Gretna's financial issues meant they'd go back to where they started in the fourth

07:26tier, because they couldn't guarantee they could play all their games the next season. August 2008 brought

07:32liquidation and in November that year, Brooks Myleson died after suffering a heart attack at home and

07:38falling into a pond. His fortune gone and the club he loved now in oblivion. So that's the story of the

07:45meteoric rise and stratospheric fall of Gretna FC. Less a failed marriage in keeping with the town's history,

07:51more a spectacular love affair that burned bright but brought destruction to all involved.

08:02years of the future, we are very proud of the future.

08:08I've been in the future of the history of the graffiti goes down inril blocks.

08:13I'm going to stay the same as working on the other side of the building here.

08:18I'm here to vertebrae, me to stay the same as working on the ground.

08:22I'm in the same place where I got to stay the same as being.

08:24So that is the same reason I am here.

08:27This seems like putting your hands up couldn't be a bit compliqué.

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