Gretna Football Club 2008 (commonly referred to as Gretna 2008 and colloquially as Gretna) is a football club from the town of Gretna. It was founded in 2008 after the bankruptcy and demise of Gretna, which had existed since 1946. Gretna 2008 is not a direct continuation of the old club, being under a completely different management and set-up; the club trades under the name ''Gretna FC 2008 Ltd'' to avoid confusion with the old Gretna. In 2013, the club became founder members of the Lowland League, having previously played in the

East of Scotland Football League The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Fo ...

Premier Division. The team played for most of the 2008–09 season at the Everholm Stadium in Annan. Late in the season, however, the new owners of

Raydale Park Raydale Park is a football stadium in Gretna, Scotland. It is home to Lowland League side Gretna 2008 and now has a capacity of 1,030. Raydale formerly served as the home ground of Gretna until the club resigned from the Scottish Football ...

allowed Gretna 2008 to move to the ground in their home town. In May 2011, the Raydale Community Partnership, of which Gretna FC 2008 is a member, negotiated the purchase of the site.

History

The original Gretna Football Club were founded in 1946, and joined the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

in 2002. After being taken over by the late millionaire

Brooks Mileson Brooks John Joseph Mileson (13 November 1947 – 3 November 2008) was an English businessman and the owner of now dissolved professional football club Gretna as well as being a philanthropist to 70 non-League clubs. Early life The eldest s ...

, the club had a meteoric rise, gaining promotion three years in a row to make the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

in 2007. However, the club could not financially support itself and following Mileson's illness and withdrawal of financial support, the club slipped into administration and then bankruptcy in the summer of 2008. The club were relegated from the SPL and then forced to resign their place in the Scottish Football League. With Gretna heading out of business, on 2 July 2008, the Gretna Supporters' Society, a

supporters' trust In British sports, a supporters' trust is a formal, democratic and not-for-profit organisation of fans who attempt to strengthen the influence of supporters over the running of the club they support. There are over 140 supporters' trusts across En ...

, founded "a new Gretna Football Club", and appointed Anton Hodge as chairman. In August 2009, the trust amended its articles of governance and Gretna FC 2008 is now managed directly by the members of the trust board, whose chairman is Craig Williamson. The new club is wholly owned by the society and its board elected by the society's members. The club appointed the

University of Cumbria The University of Cumbria is a public university in Cumbria, with its headquarters in Carlisle and other major campuses in Lancaster, Ambleside, and London. It has roots extending back to the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, establis ...

's football officer Stuart Rome as team manager and recruited much of the playing squad from

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

's reserve team. Technically, Gretna 2008 coexisted briefly with the old Gretna, which was not formally liquidated until 8 August 2008. Unable to play at the old Gretna's home ground of

, they instead moved into the Everholm Stadium in Annan. Gretna 2008 played their first match against Workington on 12 July 2008. Four days later, they were successfully accepted into the

First Division, and on 9 August 2008, won their first competitive match as a new club, beating Kelso United 3–0 away in their first match of the league

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. The new owners of

allowed Gretna 2008 to move to the ground in their home town in May 2009, and the Raydale Community Partnership, of which Gretna FC 2008 is a member, negotiated the purchase of the site in May 2011. They finished their first season as a new club in fourth place in the league. They narrowly missed promotion again in their second

, but finished their third, in 2010–11 being promoted as First Division champions. In 2013, Gretna FC 2008 were elected founder members of the new

Lowland Football League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the ...

Colours and badge

Gretna 2008's colours are black and grey with white dashes. Gretna F.C. had used white shirts after

took control of the club, but black and white hoops were the club's traditional colours. The badge of the club is largely similar to that of Gretna, except that 2008 has been added to reflect the change of status in that year. The

anvil An anvil is a metalworking tool consisting of a large block of metal (usually forged or cast steel), with a flattened top surface, upon which another object is struck (or "worked"). Anvils are as massive as practical, because the higher th ...

represents the famous Blacksmith's Shop wedding site at

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on the Scottish side of the border between Scotland and England, defined by the small river Sark, which flows into the nearby Solway Firth. It was historica ...

, and the

thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. ...

s represent the club's Scottish location.

Current squad

Seasons

† Season curtailed due to coronavirus pandemic.

Honours

First Division ** Winners: 2010–11 * East of Scotland City Cup: ** Winners: 2012–13 * East of Scotland Qualifying Cup ** Winners (2): 2009–10, 2012–13 * Alex Jack Cup ** Winners: 2008–09 * Lowland League Cup ** Runners-Up (2): 2014–15, 2015–16

References

External links

Club website

Facebook

Twitter
{{Gretna F.C. Association football clubs established in 2008 Football clubs in Dumfries and Galloway 2008 establishments in Scotland Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway East of Scotland Football League teams Lowland Football League teams Phoenix clubs (association football)