Gretna fallout

Gretna at "home". Note the crowd

It looks more and more likely that Gretna will not be around after the weekend. Admitting that the club has breached its contract with its players, Gretna has now allowed them to leave if they want. Because of this and injury concerns combined with no insurance, only 10 players have made themselves available for Saturday's game at Aberdeen.

Inside, a look at the new table should Gretna's games be abandoned entirely, as has been suggested.

The suggestion is that if Gretna are unable to finish the season, their matches will be wiped for the register entirely. If this happens, considering the games played so far, the table will look like this (team; points)

• Rangers 59
• Celtic 59
• Dundee United 43
• Motherwell 37
• Hibernian 35
• Falkirk 31
• Hearts 31
• Aberdeen 30
• Inverness CT 27
• Kilmarnock 24
• St Mirren 24

Now, I have not calculated goal differential into this, so the ties on the board may not be properly ordered. But compare that table with the current table.

• Rangers 68
• Celtic 65
• Dundee United 46
• Motherwell 46
• Hibernian 44
• Falkirk 37
• Hearts 36
• Aberdeen 34
• Inverness CT 33
• Kilmarnock 28
• St Mirren 27

The places are largely the same, without accounting for goal differential. The big winner though, is Dundee United. Currently tied with Motherwell on points for third, they would take a six point lead in the quest for what may be the last Euro spot available by league position. It must be nice for the Terrors,as they went 1-0-2 against Gretna this season. Celtic are also greatly helped by only having played Gretna twice to date.

Obversely, Hibernian and Motherwell are punished for having three wins against Gretna. Hibernian goes from being two points back of Dundee United to 8 points adrift. Motherwell, now placed six points back, are rumored to be willing to let many payments for use of Fir Park slide. For them I am sure it makes more financial sense to attempt to get into Europe than to look to get pennies on the pound from the team in administration.