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Gretna has been associated with making fairytale weddings come true for years as many couples elope across the border to marry in secret, or these days just to add that something different to a wedding day. Over the past few years Gretna FC has lived a fairytale existence by being promoted from relative obscurity to the heights of the Scottish Premier League in the space of only a few seasons.

Nothing quite like their rise to stardom has been seen anywhere in the footballing world and many observers are looking on with a mixture of curiosity and disbelief as the season fast approaches. The fairytale begins in the not too distant past, infact the club was official formed in 1946 and played no part in Scottish football until 2002. Because of their proximity to the border they played the first half century in various English leagues and in doing so became the first Scottish Club since Rangers in 1887 to take part in the English FA cup competition during the 1990’s.

The club were desperate to be part of Scottish Football and made two attempts to enter the Scottish league during the 1990’s with no success. They even played a match to raise funds for the Lockerbie disaster against a very strong Rangers side and won 2-1, but to little avail. It was only when Scottish team Airdrieonians left the league in 2002, due to financial problems that Gretna were given the chance they had been waiting for, for many years and took their place in the Scottish Third division.

Gretna FC had a few unremarkable seasons in the Scottish League and then came along Brooks Mileson, a multi-millionaire business man who gave his financial backing to Gretna and saw almost instant results as the team was promoted from the third division in 2004-05 season. The arrival of striker Kenny Deuchar as well became very significant as he went on to play a large part in the club gaining promotion to the second division. He went on to score 41 goals for Gretna which played a large part in the overall success. In being crowned Champions they amassed a total of 130 goals for, which left them only 1 short of the British record, they could however console themselves with the fact that they smashed the third divisions goal scoring record by a mere 43 goals.

The Scottish second division beckoned and Gretna overwhelmed all the opposition that came before them loosing only 4 times during the league games and amassing another impressive goal scoring tally of 97 goals for. As well as this they went all the way to the final of the Scottish Cup final for the first time. They were unlucky to go down 4-2 on penalties as they drew 1-1 after full time with Premier team Hearts, but were rewarded in that as Hearts had already made their way through to the Champions League finishing in second place, which left Gretna to take their place in the UEFA cup. Their first experience in European competition was to be a very difficult affair as their inexperience shone through as they lost to Irish side DerryCity, 7-3 on aggregate over two legs.

Having being promoted to division one many would have expected that Gretna would be looking to consolidate after such a whirlwind of success, however they carried on where they left off and during the early part of the season they seemed destined to reach the Scottish Premier League. However in the later part of the season Manager Rown

Alexander was forced to step down through ill health and although he did initially hope to return was eventually replaced by coach Davie Irons for the rest of the season.

As well as this blow their form also dipped which saw their nearest challengers St Johnstone come within a point of them before the final game of the season. As seems to be the case with the team, they left it until the very last minutes to score the fairytale goal which gave them their dream of playing in the Scottish Premier League in 2007-08.

At the end of the season the Gretna players took many of the awards given to the best players in the first division over the season. This included striker Colin Mc Menamin who took the honour of SPFA Player of the year for 2006-07. His contribution of 24 goals which made up more than a third of the clubs league goals helped to make sure that the dream became a reality.

One negative point is that as they have been promoted to the top flight they will no longer be able to play home games at Raydale Park which has seen them climb the divisions, instead they will ground share with Motherwell at their home Fir Park whilst their own ground is redeveloped to meet SPL safety standards and an increase on it’s near 3000 capacity.

It remains to be seen how long they will need to ground share but plans are being drawn up to redeveloped Raydale Park as quickly as possibly. On a brighter note Rowan Alexander will possibly return in some form although as yet his role has been undisclosed by owner Brooks Mileson. The managerial pairing of Davie Irons and Mick Wadsworth will be charged with keeping the club in the top flight and appear to be relishing the task of making a name in the Scottish Premier League along with the players.

One of the benefits which has been noticeable immediately is that fans and supporters will now be able to watch live Gretna matches with much more regularity as people want to watch the team that has soared to the top so quickly. No doubt they will receive a great deal of new fans who want to watch Gretna live as they will undoubtedly be seen as major underdogs for the forthcoming season.

However Gretna have managed to hold onto many of their star players and the duo of strikers Kenny Deuchar and Colin McMenamin will no doubt terrorize many sides within the Scottish Premier League. Although Gretna finally looked like a team that had to fight for promotion last year, many people will no doubt see them as a team who could provide a few shocks this season, enough so that the bookies will surely have a few bets being made over the course of the season for Gretna FC to take at least one trophy!