Ben

I am a biased ****.
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On the 3rd of June 2008 Gretna FC resigned from the Scottish Football League due to severe financial difficulties.

On the 2nd of July 2008 a new club Gretna 2008 were accepted into the East Of Scotland League and the South Of Scotland League.

Later that month, Gretna 2008 were re elected into the SFL Third Division at the expense of Montrose FC, this was due to an appeal from the club that involved their much improved financial state and high standard of respect for the SFL's rules and guidelines. Following their re appointment to the SFL, Gretna 2008 became Gretna FC once more.

The next day, Harry Charnock was elected Chairman of the club, with Ben Worthington being his only Director. Both men were quite wealthy in money, but not in experience, as this is the first time either of them had been involved behind the scenes at a Football Club.

Gretna FC fans were buzzing about their reappointment, but there was a down side to the predicament - they had absolutely no players or staff and with £2million in the bank they had to build a team fit enough to gain promotion which is the new managers aim. Surely this is all to much for one man to handle!

So after extensive discussion between Ben Worthington and Harry Charnock they agreed to appoint Ben's nephew as the new manager of Gretna FC! His name's Luis Woods and he has had little experience so this is a massive task for the guy.

Luis started his career off with Liverpool and had a professional contract with them until he was 19. At 19 he moved onto Tranmere Rovers and played there until he was 26. He played just over 200 games for the club scoring 45 goals from the attacking midfield role. At the age of 26 he moved on to Macclesfield until he was 33. His last 2 season were injury struck therefore Macclesfield decided to let the players conract run out. In his 7 seasons he played 192 games and scored 29 goals, his last 4 or 5 seasons playing in a deeper role compared to early on in his career. His final club would be Prescot Cables a small side from Merseyside in the North-West of England. He played there at centre midfield until he was 35 playing just 51 games for the Merseyside club scoring 8 goals. He then retired and took a break from the games until his 36th birthday when he took up a coaching role at Prescot. Then at the age of 40 he took over as manager at Prescot Cables and after consolidating, in his 2nd season (his 1st full season) he earned promotion to the Unibond league. He survived in the league but after coming close to relegation Luis Woods left the managerial role at Prescot Cables due to too much stress and wanting to spend time with his family.

And today Luis Woods walks into his first job in football for 2 years. He made it known to the board that he felt he could at least finish in the top half of the Irn Bru Scottish 3rd division. He has Rangers as a parent club to help his cause. He also has £2 Million to spend on building a team and maybe bringing in some staff although the board had placed heavy restrictions on signing coaches or any other staff. Luis made an aim to only spend £1 Million in his first season building his team. In his first press conference on the 2nd July 2009 this is what Luis had to say,

Well, Luis Woods what are your feeling towards your appointment here at Gretna?
I'm pleased to have the chance to work here. It's exciting having to build a club from scratch but I have fantastic foundation to work with.

Seeing as you have no players in the squad have you already got players shortilsted that you are interested in making part of your team?
Not at the moment but soon after this interview I will walk into my office and look long and hard at some players to make my first season here a success.

What are your aims for this season?
Well I basicly want to finish in the top half of the table.

You have some basic staff at the club, are you going to terminate their contracts and bring in some new staff or will you give the current staff a chance?
I am going to keep all staff here at least until next season.

My first couple of days on the job. I will update tomorrow with screenshots of my transfers, first couple of results etc. Thanks please feel free to comment and credit to Harry Charnock for creating this database for me!
 
Make me proud mate :p
Looking forward to seeing how you do :)
 
First results!

Thanks Harry! Here are my first few results.

Friendly: (H) Gretna 1V4 Rangers Dalziel


Friendly: (H) Gretna 2V2 Hearts Keegan, Mcswegan


Challenge Cup 1st round: (A) Gretna 1V1 Airdrie Miller, Guplwell sent off, Cronin missed pen Airdrie win 4-3 on pens
 
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i actually followed gretna a while back when they got to scottish div 1 they they went into administration and i forgot about them but good luk mate
 
Good luck. Interesting idea and i'll also be following
 
Yeah I've been playing this game a lot lately I'm either in late Feb or early March. I will update at about quarter to 11. Thanks for the responses.

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League Matches unless I write otherwise. So here is August!

Gretna 4V4 Annan (Away) Benyon3, Smith-Poole

CIS Cup 1st Round Gretna 2V6 Dundee (Away) Todd, Miller

Gretna 1V0 Stranraer (Away) Benyon

Gretna 2V0 East Stirling (Home) Kalanda, Keegan

Gretna 0V0 Albion Rovers (Home)

Gretna 0V2 Elgin (Away)

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Aquiet September.

Gretna 1V1 Queens Park (Home) Mcgrath

Gretna 0V1 Cowdenbeath (Away)

Gretna 0V1 Forfar (Home)


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And a quiet October also not containing any wins...

Gretna 2V2 Berwick (Home) Keegan, Benyon

Gretna 0V0 Stranraer (Home)

Scottish Cup 2nd Round Gretna 0V3 Forfar

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Was getting quite worried at this point, 8 games without winning with only 2 wins in the league lingering above the relegation zone. I looked for where the problem was and with only 10 goals from 10 games I quickly shortlisted a couple of strikers to try and sign in January, Young 17 year old J'lloyd Portland was already on his way though so I would have to get rid of some of my strikers or demote some to my reserves. My only one scoring was Elliot Benyon and he was only getting average ratings of around 6.70. Moving onto November...

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Gretna 2V2 East Stirling (Away) Benyon, O.G

Gretna 3V0 Annan (Home) Cronin(Pen), O.G, O.G

Gretna 2V0 Albion Rovers (Away) Keegan, Benyon

Gretna 2V0 Elgin (Home) Cronin(Pen), Miller

Gretna 1V0 Cowdenbeath (Home) Craig

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We were now on fire and scoring for fun so after me declaring interest in some strikers my own ones must of been getting worried. Onto a December without any home games.

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Gretna 3V3 Forfar (Away) Craig2, Mcswegan

Gretna 1V1 Queens Park (Away) Benyon

Gretna 2V1 Berwick (Away) Kalanda, Benyon

Gretna 0V0 (Away)

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January and Maguire, Noble and Portland are the signings. Portland and Noble strikers and Maguire an attacking midfielder.

Gretna 3V1 East Stirling (Home) Cronin(Pen), Fyfe, Benyon

Gretna 2V1 Annan (Away) Kalanda, Smith-Poole

Gretna 4V0 Albion Rovers (Home) Gupwell, Maguire2, Noble

Gretna 1V0 Elgin (Away) Maguire

Gretna 0V0 Queens Park (Home)
 
I think I'm going to give this a go..however I will def try to get Celtic as my parents club instead of those Huns..
 
Took a lot of patience this game letting the team gel. Now we are starting to find form and are second in the league behind Elgin. Hopefully Noble and Portland will start scoring goals along with Benyon and Maguire could also chip in. I've renewed a lot of contracts and will finish February now update and post screenshots. Please comment!

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Gretna 0V2 Cowdenbeath (Away)

Gretna 2V1 Forfar (Home) Portland, Benyon

Gretna 3V1 Berwick (Home) Kalanda, Benyon, Fyfe(Pen)

Gretna 2V0 Stranraer (Home) Benyon2

So the teams gelled now and I've hit the top of the table. Finally lost against Cowdenbeath thought after 14 games unbeaten. We just looked awful against Cowdenbeath and after giving a few players warnings over a bad performance a couple got unhappy so I might have to let a couple go at the end of the season, hopefully heading into the Scottish Division 2. Benyon is scoring for fun and with 8 games to go hopefully he can keep it up. 4 signings in January, Bryan Little AM/LC from New Zealand. Stephen Maguire Scottish AM/C. Stuart Noble Scottish ST and J'lloyd Portland American ST. Maguire has made an instant impace and Noble and Portland have both got 1 in about 3/4 games each. Had to send Craig back to Rangers to fit Maguire in and demoted Buick and Mcswegan 2 experience players. Going well though results-wise and hopefully it will be league glory in Gretna's first season back in Scottish leage football!
 
looking good m8

Thanks!

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March is going well I will probably finish season and update tomorrow. Thanks!
 
I think I'm going to give this a go..however I will def try to get Celtic as my parents club instead of those Huns..


was there any real need for that? slagging the champions aint the smartest thing you could have done...

also good to see your winning with gretna :) hope you get spl status again :p
 
Looking good so far. Good luck and hopefully u can get back into the spl again:)
 
Thanks for the comments everyone. Update will probably be tonight I should of already finished the season but about 3 this morning it crashed and went off. My mate has it in his now and says it will be ready about 6 so I should update tonight hopefully and finish the season.
 
Nice challenge, I'm trying with AFC Wimbledon, I've got loads of great signings so far this season, just about to update thread :) I hope you do well mate and I'll be following :)
 
Nice challenge, I'm trying with AFC Wimbledon, I've got loads of great signings so far this season, just about to update thread :) I hope you do well mate and I'll be following :)

Thanks mate I think I have had a read of your thread already I'll comment on it later :D

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Oh and my mate said he has found the problem he is just fixing it he will bring it round in about half an hour! Should finish the season tonight then.

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Well I have finished the season will update in about an hour with screenies!

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I have had a couple of guys ask where I got the database so here is the link
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=978
 
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