MLT is coming to town to help us raise money.

Former Southampton & England midfielder and current Gillette Soccer Saturday presenter Matt Le Tissier will be bringing his coaching team to Raydale on Saturday 20th June 2015.

Matt who along with former Southampton team mate Francis Benali formed MLT Natural Coaching 4 years ago & run soccer schools throughout Hampshire with the task of finding naturally gifted young players who can go on and play at a professional level. Matt's philosophy is to deliver a natural coaching program for talented & gifted young footballers who he believes can be guided into the professional game.

Jodie Rivers

Joining Matt at Raydale will be top coach Jodie Rivers who has worked at numerous clubs including this seasons Sky Bet Championship winners & newly promoted Bournemouth FC.

The MLT team will be at Raydale from 2.00pm where youngsters can enjoy coaching sessions from some of the best the game has to offer including the legend himself Matt Le Tissier.

Sportsmans Dinner.

The Evening will see Gretna FC (2008) host a Sportmans Dinner at the Shepherds Inn, Carlisle where Matt Le Tissier will give us a no holds barred talk about his career in Football from where it all began to his final game before retiring in 2002. Tickets cost £25.00 or you can reserve a table of 10 for £225.00.

Did you know ?

Matt made 443 appearances for Saints scoring 161 goals.
Was capped 35 times for England, 8 at senior level.
Converted 47 times from 48 penalties.

Xavi

In 2010, Spanish superstar Xavi revealed that Le Tissier had been one of his childhood inspirations, claiming that: "His talent was simply out of the norm. He could simply dribble past seven or eight players but without speed - he just walked past them. For me he was sensational

Player of the year awards

Last night saw Gretna FC (2008) annual Player of the year awards held at Raydale. 3 awards were given including Players Player of the year which was won by Darren Addison, Supporters Player of the year which was awarded to Iain Anderson and Player of the year to Brandon Longcake.

Darren Addison

Iain Anderson

Brandon Longcake

Raydale Cup

Gretna FC 2008 have announced the line-up for this year's Raydale Cup to run over the weekend of 11th/12th July. As well as Gretna FC 2008, Ayr United, Annan Athletic and Carlisle City will be competing for the Cup.

This year’s Raydale Cup will take place on the weekend of Saturday 11^th and 12^th July. There will be two games each day, the preliminary round on Saturday and the third place play off followed by the final on Sunday.

Competing with Gretna FC 2008 for the cup this year will be Ayr United, Annan Athletic and Carlisle City.

Scottish League 1 side, Ayr United is competing in the competition for the first time although they have competed at Raydale before. Interestingly Ayr United has never lost a friendly at Raydale, defeating the 1946 side 4-1 in 1963 and the Brooks Mileson side 2-1 in 2007. Formed in 1910, The Honest Men spent 34 seasons in the top flight of Scottish Football. Manager Ian McCall’s side are the top ranked side in the competition and have to start favourites.

Local interest comes in the form of Annan Athletic from Scottish League 2. They will be competing on two fronts. Jim Chapman will be looking to upstage the League 1 side while at the same time renewing local rivalries with Gretna which go back to Carlisle and District league days in the 1950s. Since then the fortunes of the two local sides have been interwoven Annan secured their Scottish League 2 place on the demise of the Brooks Mileson Gretna side. Henry McClelland and his board will yet again be welcome visitors to Raydale, cementing the keen but friendly relationship between the two teams.

There will be a Raydale Cup debut for another ambitious local side, Carlisle City.  Carlisle City field over 300 players in their 3 senior, 14 boys and 4 girl’s sides. They finished runners up last season in the Northern Alliance League. Marc Shiel, who many Gretna fans will remember, was top scorer in the league. Ryan Errington, Sean Bannon and James Earl are others who have appeared for both sides.

The hosts, Gretna FC 2008 go into the break on a high, despite the disappointment of losing their last game, the Cup final. As well as the final spot the club achieved their highest ever finishing position, third in the Lowland League. Manager Stuart Rome has already started the search to strengthen the side with the intention to push on next season.

The Raydale Cup was revived in 2013, largely through the efforts of coach, Nikki White. That year, Wrexham lifted the cup, beating Stirling Albion in the final whilst Gretna FC 2008 beat a very young St Mirren side into third place. Stirling Albion returned last year as favourites but lost their first match to Workington. Annan Athletic beat the hosts to set up a closely contested final which went to penalties and a victory for Athletic over the Reds.

A feast of football will be on show for local fans with tickets on sale on match day.

Gretna Fc 2008 1 East Kilbride 3

Scottish Lowland League Cup Final

Gretna FC 2008 1 – 3  East Kilbride

Sunday 17^th May 2008

Netherdale, Galashiels

There was Cup misery for Gretna FC 2008 as East Kilbride lifted silverware for the second year in succession, adding the Lowland League Cup to last season’s South Challenge Cup.

Kick off at Gala’s Netherdale Stadium was delayed for 10 minutes as coaches from East Kilbride were delayed by an accident on the motorway but the sun blessed the start of play after earlier drizzle.

Kilbie took the game to Gretna in the early exchanges and Brady and Victoria were to tease and torment the Gretna defence all afternoon.

With 12 minutes gone East Kilbride were awarded a penalty following a hand ball by Alan Inglis. Joao Victoria made no mistake with the conversion to send East Kilbride into an early lead.

Gretna fought their way back into the match but Kilbie were fast and dangerous on the break. Brady brought out a great save from Murray in the 2008 goal but Gordon in the opposite goal was not to be upstaged and was in similar form to deny Adam Main. Play was sweeping from end to end. Anderson won a corner which Kilbie easily cleared. The ball was sent up the park. Brady passed to Victoria who spurned an excellent chance to make it 2-0. Minutes later McBride headed into the arms of Murray.

In the dying minutes of the first half, Gretna got the equaliser they deserved. Gordon could only parry a Milligan header which came to Anderson who headed home the rebound to make it 1-1. Gretna ended the first half the stronger and as the interval approached Anderson nearly linked up with Longcake to give Gretna the advantage. But the terrific first half advertisement for the Lowland League ended all square.

East Kilbride shocked the hoops with a 90 second solo effort by Craig Howie who carried the ball up the park and shot into Murray’s right hand corner to make it 2-1 to the Lanarkshire side. Gretna were stung and Anderson tried to respond immediately but could only shoot into the arms of Murray. Morris blocked a shot from Longcake. Then Anderson linked up with Main but EK were back in numbers to deny them.

As Gretna chased the game, Dan Wood was brought on for Dan Graham on the hour mark. Shortly afterwards, Hastings replaced Victoria for EK. Kilby were still dangerous on the breakaway. They should have increased their advantage when Brady cut a ball back for McLeish who blasted it over the bar.

Nick Cassidy came on for Darren Addison in the 65^th minute. EK also rang the changes with  Michael Giblin replacing Michael Morris and Martin McLoughin on for Bernard Coll. Five minutes later in Stuart Rome’s final spin of the dice, Michael McAnespie was brought on for Alan Inglis.

As East Kilbride started to dictate the pace of the game, Gretna were continually exasperated in their long range efforts, first from Longcake then from Milligan but with Gretna trying for the equaliser it was Brady who put the final beyond doubt when in the dying minutes he scored Kilbie’s third.

An engrossing game which East Kilbride on balance deserved to win.

Gretna FC 2008: Craig Murray; Dan Graham; Greg Thorburn; Dean Rea; Alan Inglis; Darren Addison; Brandon Longcake; Adam Main; Iain Anderson; Scott Milligan; Connor Graham Subs Dan Wood, Nick Cassidy, Michael McAnespie, Gavin Cowper