Gretna are considering going into administration in order to stall the prospect of liquidation, which would wipe the stricken club off the Scottish football map forever. The Borders club held crisis talks yesterday with insolvency experts and will make an announcement on Monday about their future.

The issue is no longer about preserving Gretna’a status in the Clydesdale bank Premier League, of which they are bottom, but in simply keeping alive the club that played in the Scottish Cup final just two years ago. There are genuine fears that Gretna could become the first side to fold completely since Third Lanark disappeared in 1967 after it went bust.

Debts are reported to have risen above £4 million, despite Gretna taking steps over the last year to cut the club’s budget. However, setting a record low attendance for a Premier League game of just 507 for the rearranged home match with Dundee United on Thursday has prompted an immediate review of whether the club has the revenue to continue to the end of the season and fulfil their fixtures.

The absence of any involvement from Brooks Mileson, the millionaire who bankrolled Gretna’s remarkable rise from new recruits to the Scottish Football League in 2002 to the the top flight five years later, via the 2006 Scottish Cup final against Heart of Midlothian and a Uefa Cup appearance, has compounded the financial problems. Mileson is seriously ill and has spent time in hospital recently.

Privately, Gretna have accepted they will be relegated from the Premier League and could well drop down to the Irn-Bru Scottish League second division as a result of carrying out no safety work on their Raydale Park ground while they have been in the top flight, where they were ordered by the Scottish Premier League to rent Fir Park from Motherwell and use it as their home ground.

Club officials emerged yesterday from talks with insolvency experts, Wilson Field Ltd, to say that a final decision on Gretna’s future had yet to be made. A statement is likely to be made on Monday.

Speaking before the meetings, Graeme Muir, the chief executive, was hopeful that Gretna will not go into liquidation. “I don’t think it is as bad as that, but we have a difficult situation at the club,” he said. “Does any club have a future when only 507 fans turn up? Dundee United did not bring many fans through, so I think many Scottish clubs are facing problems. We’ve been battling through the last three weeks and getting us to the end of the season is paramount.”

Gretna’s financial problems were unveiled last month when the club was late with player wages while Mileson was in hospital. “Thankfully, the payroll is up to date, but we have other creditors and we are trying to resolve that,” Muir said.

Gretna have picked up just 16 points from 28 games in their first season in the top flight. There is little doubt that even their hardcore support of 1,000 fans have grown weary of the 180-mile round-trip to Lanarkshire for home games. “There’s other problems on the financial side. In the past 18 months, with Brooks Mileson, Mick Wadsworth and myself, we’ve actually reduced the payroll to something a bit more sensible, but we’re just hoping it’s not too late,” Muir said.

“The only way ahead for a club like Gretna, with a small population, is to do exactly what we have been trying to do and that’s to have a leaner, meaner, smaller - but better – squad and have players of value.

“We played in the [Scottish] Cup final but we didn’t get one offer for one player so, although we were in the cup final and in the Uefa Cup, you could say that we had no value in the team because we didn’t get an offer.

“However, in the last few months, people like Fabian Yantorno and Aurelien Collin and others, have actually attracted interest. That’s the only way a club like Gretna can have any financial viability. That’s what we have set about doing in the last 18 months but we are facing a difficult situation.”

Ironically, Gretna were admitted into the SFL in May 2002 after Airdrieonians went bust with debts of £3 million. The Lanarkshire club’s new owners then bought out stricken Clydebank for just £300,000 to keep their place in the Scottish League, rebranding as Airdrie United. Clydebank, however, still play, albeit in the nonleague tier of junior football.

There is plenty of precedence throughout Europe for clubs being punished with demotion to the third tier, notably Fiorentina in Italy, and Servette, the former champions of Switzerland, whose debts soared despite having a new stadium built for them to host Euro 2008.