Gretna v Derry City Fir Park Kick-off: 7.45Best known down the years as a favourite destination of love-struck 16-year-olds intent on escaping age requirements for marriage south of the border, Gretna has been swept away by an altogether different type of love affair in more recent times.
So popular has the union between 58-year-old insurance millionaire Brooks Mileson and the local football club proven among the 3,000-odd locals that half of them are expected to make the 75-mile trip north to Motherwell this evening to see the club's first European outing.
And so productive has it proven in terms of successive promotions and an appearance in a Scottish Cup final that very few supporters of the First Division outfit give Derry City a chance of taking anything from this Uefa Cup tie.
For two years now they have grown used to watching their team win and win big. Mileson's money has enabled Rowan Alexander, an unconventional manager with an eye for a bargain, to assemble a team of experienced professionals. Many of them have turned down contracts at low-ranking Scottish Premier League sides for the fractionally better money and much greater job security at Gretna.
The expected starting line-up this evening includes the likes of Steve Tosh, Jamie McQuilken and James Grady, who had spells at Aberdeen, Celtic and Dundee United respectively. Grady is one half of a prolific strike partnership, the other being Kenny Doucher, full-time footballer but part-time doctor who still works shifts in the local hospital.
As Alexander pondered this evening's tie at his side's temporary home, he made much of his respect for Derry before offering faintly damning praise.
"We're certainly not taking them lightly," he promised before going on to list Derry's qualities as physical strength, industry, discipline and organisation.
The Gretna coach has achieved much since Mileson arrived at the club's ground for the first time, interrupted his efforts to get the grass cut and asked for his opinion on whether he should buy a club then playing its football in the English Unibond League.
City, though, were a little taken aback upon arriving in Glasgow on Monday to discover their home and away defeats of Gothenburg carried so little weight here that some bookmakers were offering 5 to 1 against them winning this evening at what is essentially a neutral venue in which Derry expect to be the better-supported side.
"The ground thing isn't an issue at all," insists Brendan McGill, the 25-year-old Dubliner who, having signed for the Scots this summer from neighbouring Carlisle, is set to become the first player from the Republic to play against an Irish side in European competition for two decades.
"A few of the lads have played there so they know it alright," says the right winger, who won a European championship medal in Perth eight years ago with Brian Kerr's under-16 side. "But for the rest of us it's just another pitch where we'll play another game of football we'll set out to win."
It's the sort of attitude that appears to have served Gretna well in recent seasons. They have set records for points accrued and goals scored en route from the Third Division. In British football only Chelsea have been backed more heavily to win their divisional title this season.
And Gretna's 6-0 defeat of Hamilton on Saturday provided early ammunition for those who anticipate another automatic promotion for Alexander's side.
Kenny, though, is anxious to put Saturday's result in context, noting that Hamilton exited the League Cup here on Tuesday night to Third Division opponents. "I don't want to take anything away from them. They have a strong first team and a remarkable set-up - more than 50 full-time professionals, including the whole of their under-19 side - but we'd hope we might present more of a challenge than some of the teams that they've been playing over the past couple of years."
He was impressed, he says, by how they beat Dundee in last year's cup semi-final and their performance in the final, when they lost to Hearts on penalties. But he still believes Derry can build on the success they enjoyed against Gothenburg.
As he seeks to do so he is likely to have Barry Molloy, Peter Hutton and Seán Hargan available again. But there is unlikely to be any place in the starting line-up for Paddy McCourt, who, despite having recovered from a hamstring problem after six weeks out, will have to settle for a place on the bench.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
GRETNA: Main; Canning, Innes, Townsley; McGill, McGuffie, Tosh, McQuilken, Skelton; Doucher, Grady.
DERRY CITY: Forde; McCallion, Hutton, Kelly, Hargan; Deery, Martyn, Molloy, O'Flynn; McHugh, Beckett.
