Airdrie surprsingly beat leaders Gretna 2-0 -- with the help of some Klansmen.
Gretna are a success story in Scottish football. Bankrolled by millionaire Miles Brookson, the side from the town best known for shotgun weddings, have won two successive promotions and made the Scottish FA Cup final last season.
Gretna share top spot with Livingston and St Johnstone in Division One and look like being in the mix at the end of the season for another promotion and end up in the Premier League with the big boys like Celtic and Rangers.
They lost 2-0 at home to second-from-bottom Airdrie on Saturday which would have been mildly newsworthy, but it was the antics of some Airdrie fans that have made a few headlines (actually just two: http://www.gretna.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=33073 and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/5405722.stm
Apparently a few Airdrie fans decided to greet Gretna's introduction of Matthew Berkeley (a black Englishman) as a substitute by donning Ku Klux Klan headgear.
According to Ch Insp Stewart Wilson: "They weren't wearing these masks continuously and we made an effort to identify who was in possession of them. However, owing to the fact that it was in a standing area these supporters were pretty boisterous and moving around a lot, we were unable to do that."
It makes you wonder just how many away fans there were that the police couldn't identify the men holding white hoods -- especially as the entire attendance was 1,492.
At least both clubs have stridently denounced the activities of the Klansmen and Gretna were already organising a "Show Racism the Red Card" event later in October.
And there is a happy ending for Berkeley who has just received a call-up to the St Kitts & Nevis U20 World Cup qualifying squad (thanks to his parents' birthplace).
Hopefully, those Airdrie fans will be getting a call from the police and banned from going to football matches for a very long time.
