Chick Young's view

Honestly, I've seen more people in a bus queue than there were at Fir Park at the weekend.

The turnstiles at Gretna's rented billet toiled to turn through 360 degrees, as punters turned the stadium into a paradise for claustrophobics.

I've seen less populated acreage in the Gobi Desert.

They called it living the dream at Gretna.

But life in the big time must be costing the club sleepless nights.

To be honest, a Horlicks was never going to be enough to help Brooks Mileson and his gang, who hijacked three divisions of Scottish football, to then sleep easy when they reached the mountain top.

But the concern now from other clubs isn't about the Borders team's discovery that the SPL appears to be Teflon coated and they cannot get a grip on the greasy pole that is the top division, but rather that not enough people are following the club, not even out of curiosity.

Just 1,020 fans turned up to watch Gretna play Inverness, a match that was admittedly a trek of Marco Polo proportions in terms of geography.

But it was a huge game for Gretna, who are beginning to see the rest of the division disappear over the horizon.

They really needed a win - and certainly not a defeat, never mind a four-goal one - to keep the reins on the Highlanders, who were similarly paddling in the relegation quicksand.

Caley Thistle haven't dried their feet yet - but Gretna are up to their necks in the stuff.

Bless Brooks Mileson and his incredible fairytale.

A hundred years from now, they will tell his story and kids will listen open-eyed in wonderment.

It's our time's equivalent of Arbroath 36, Bon Accord 0.

There is something spectacularly right with our game when a club can come from nowhere and climb the ladder to the stars and, even if there are only a thousand or so Gretna loyalists, you have to look to the plus points.

Just a few short years ago, they were playing to 14 men and a dog and in percentage terms the increase is phenomenal.

Now there is a huge multiplication in terms of the population who take an interest and there is not a collie in Dumfries and Galloway who doesn't let his thoughts drift to Raydale as he rounds up the sheep.

But this was a Saturday afternoon in October and Gretna are still far from doomed.

It was cold and it was crisp, but it was not dark, wet, bitter Februrary, the kind of night on which even Captain Scott would just settle for a slice of toast and a cup of hot chocolate.

And if it goes on like this then February might be too late.

They might as well close the northbound slip road out of Gretna Green and on to the M74.

I'm not quite sure what we do about this, you know.

Brooks and his boys have every right to their dream and I have thunderously applauded it every step of the way.

But this could get embarrassing.

The SPL attendance record will be smashed this season without question - the bottom end that is - and one winter's night at Fir Park they might just be able to deploy one turnstile operator and one steward.

Julian Clary could probably do the shift - they certainly wouldn't need the heavy brigade.

Gretna aren't an embarrassment to the division, but their box office is.

Yet you can't drag the population of the sleepy hollow that doubles as their home town kicking and screaming to Motherwell and demand they fill the stands.

And you cannot ban a club because they have less support than a Page 3 lovely.

That would be attendance-ist.

And Gretna won't abandon all hope - not until all is officially all over - even though there is a huge queue of people tipping them for relegation.

Unfortunately, it doesn't start at the Fir Park turnstiles.

Source: BBC Sport