New beginnings for AFC Gretna

AFTER re-establishing in March, a club from a Scottish border town wants to make its mark in the lower echelons of English amateur football.

Following acceptance into the Cumberland County League Division One, AFC Gretna’s preparations are well underway for the new season.

And head coach and founder Jay Stubbs has been hard at work building a squad capable of challenging at the top end of the division.

He said: “The league starts in August. We’ve had training and we’ve already played a few games over the past couple of months.

“I’m hoping we can finish in the top four. If you do that you finish in the play-offs and then you get a chance to go up.

“If you look at the teams, there’s Carlisle City’s development team, Unisun’s development team and Northbank are in there.

“There’s quite a few good teams, but with the players that we’ve got I think we’re quite capable of getting promotion next season.”

A Gretna lad, Stubbs, 27, first set-up the team back in 2018. He wanted to create a platform where footballers from the area could go and play.

AFC Gretna first started playing in the Dumfries Sunday League before moving to a similar competition in Carlisle.

However, they called it a day in 2023 as Stubbs admitted the workload became overwhelming.

Briefly explaining the journey up until this point, he said: “I’d broken my leg and I couldn’t really play any more. But I wanted to remain involved in football so I started the team up.

“I spoke to a lot of the lads I used to play with at Canonbie and Annan and we just thought to go for it. We got a team sorted and we did alright, to be fair.

“In our last season before we folded we got promoted in the Carlisle Sunday League.

“We folded because it was just too much. I was doing everything myself. I was the chairman, the secretary, treasurer, welfare officer and the manager.

“We’ve got a full committee in place now, which is far better. It leaves me to focus on the football side of things.”

When AFC Gretna restarted, the original plan was to re-apply for the Carlisle Sunday League. But after Stubbs noticed the quality in the squad, a discussion ended with the decision that Saturday football was the best route forward.

After initially applying to join the Westmorland League, the Cumberland League got in touch and convinced the team to join them instead.

Stubbs said: “From what we’ve heard it’s a similar level to the Carlisle Sunday League, it’s not much of a step up.

“We’ve got a friendly against Silloth coming up to see what level they’re at and see what we’ll be competing against.”

New players are always welcome, Stubbs added: “We’re always looking for players to improve us. We’ve got a good bunch of lads. Commitment is the main thing we’re looking for.

“We’ve got lads from as far north as Dumfries and down to Penrith.”

Although training takes place twice a week at Gretna FC 2008’s Raydale Park, AFC Gretna will not be playing fixtures in the town to start off with. It is something Stubbs hopes can change in the future.

The opening game of the season will be held in Longtown.

The head coach said: “The Cumberland League instantly said the English FA won’t allow Raydale.

“It’s more because Gretna 2008 are a registered Scottish FA side and we’d be sharing a ground with them. That’s what caused the main issue.

“Graitney is not good enough. So, until we’ve got a pitch sorted in Carlisle we are going to be using Longtown’s.

“We’d have to get (Raydale) affiliated with the English FA. They’ve said we can apply for that but it could take years.

“We’re going to apply for it as soon as we can and just get the ball rolling.”

Stubbs also mentioned he was grateful to Gretna FC 2008 stalwart Stuart Rome for all of his help up until this point.

He said: “Stuart has helped me quite a lot. He’s helped us speak to the English FA and Cumberland FA, and he helped us get a pitch sorted for next season when I told him we couldn’t play at Raydale.”

AFC Gretna will kick off the campaign at home to Windscale Reserves on August 16 at the Stuart Harris Ground, Longtown.