Rome: I'll be proud when Gretna tackle Reds
Last updated 12:30, Wednesday, 09 July 2008
Stuart Rome admits it will be a proud moment when his resurrected home-town outfit Gretna kick off their opening pre-season friendly against his former club Workington Reds at Borough Park on Saturday.
But he stressed that the spotlight should be trained on new-look Gretna and not their new boss.
“It’s not about me, it’s about Gretna Football Club,” said Rome, who led Reds’ reserves to Lancashire League glory last season. “This is what everyone has been working for.
“I had three fantastic years at Workington, and made a lot of good friends among supporters.
“It was a wrench to leave. But I have lived in Gretna for 48 years, and to lose its football club after 65 years would have been so sad.
“We are still waiting confirmation where we’ll be playing next season. We have applied to join both the East and South of Scotland Leagues.
“And we just want to sustain ourselves, whichever league we are playing in. It’s not a case of going in singing and dancing. We want to be low key.
“We have the squad of players and the coaching staff in place and are just waiting to be given the nod by somebody.”
Reds boss Darren Edmondson, who worked on the old Raydale club’s community programme before losing the job earlier this year as Gretna collapsed, had the idea to play Saturday’s friendly in a bid to get the new outfit off to a flying start.
And Rome hopes to have a reasonable following of Gretna fans at the match.
“A lot will travel because it’s a local game,” he added. “In non-league terms, we have a big band of supporters following the club.
“Three months ago they were an SPL club, and hopefully fans will stick with us, even though we’ve gone back to non-league football.”
Rome will have a number of Reds’ reserves from last season on show, though he declined to say how many.
“A lot of the reserve players I won the league with last season I brought to the club, and I have the right to give them the chance to join me at Gretna FC,” he said. “It’s down to the players.”
