Two hours after training finished at a rain-lashed Raydale Park yesterday, the Gretna players finally emerged after being given the stark news about their future. Each carried a black bin bag. The trademark of someone who just lost his job.

Yet the bags were misleading. The Gretna squad had not cleared out their personal effects because they had been sacked, it was merely a spot of crime prevention. A club that has lost its dignity in the last few days, and is poised to be stripped of its status as top-flight Scottish football team, had been hit by a break-in in the early hours of Thursday. The thieves had taken 20 pairs of football boots.

Gallows humour or what? Surely, Gretna’s footballers had no need for boots now? “We’re taking our stuff away because of the break-in,” Greig Fleming, the goalkeeper, said. “We are taking no chances. That’s the only reason.” Fleming and the rest of the Gretna squad had met with David Elliot, the administrator, and Fraser Wishart, the PFA Scotland chief executive, in a bid to find an eleventh-hour solution to the impoverished club’s problems. They had been asked by the administrator if they wanted to play against Aberdeen at Pittodrie tomorrow and keep Gretna alive for a further week – the only problem is that they have to do so for nothing and there is no insurance cover against injury now that their contracts have been officially broken by Gretna’s move into administration and nonpayment of wages for this week.

Only ten were willing to play. The biggest problem of all is that there is no goalkeeper. Fleming was not one of the men keen to put his future at risk.

Since Gretna only have one other goalkeeper – teenager Artur Krysiak, on loan from Birmingham City – the administrator now finds himself in the same position of every pub team manager in the country each Sunday morning; trying to drum up recruits.

The players all left the Raydale dressing-room and rushed through the rain into the car park. Every one insisted they had no idea whether today will bring the end, or whether Gretna’s death throes will be prolonged into next week. Each carried the same look of disbelief – they were all in limbo. It was the same for Gavin Skelton, who has been at Gretna for five years and was a 2006 Scottish Cup final hero, and for Henry Makinwa, a Nigerian striker who only arrived four months ago.

“There is not a lot I can tell you,” Fleming said. “We have not been told if it is the end. Some of us might get other clubs. We don’t know. We would have liked to have been the first to know but it can’t be helped. Hopefully, it will be clearer on Friday.”

Things could get no worse, you would think. If you’ve lost your job, your football team and your identity, what else is left to take. In Fabian Yantorno’s case, the roof over his head. The Uruguayan forward was the last player to come out. He hobbled away on crutches. Yantorno’s season had already ended in January with a knee injury but the 24-year-old, who was signed from Miramar Misione, will lose more than colleagues in the dressing-room because he lives in a club apartment in Carlisle.

Presumably, Yantorno’s flat is about to disappear along with the rest of Gretna’s assets. “I don’t know what is happening to me,” the Uruguayan, who sends money back home every week to help his poor family, said. “My contract expires at the end of the season. I was working hard to get fit again. I have been doing my rehabilitation, going to the gym every day. I am still a few weeks away from getting rid of the crutches. Fortunately, my girlfriend, Patricia, is coming back from Montevideo today. She will be able to help me get round more easily. I have no idea if another club wants me.”

There are at least two Premier League managers in Scotland who would gladly take Yantorno. David Irons, the former manager, received two offers for the skilful forward during the January transfer window, before he quit to manage Morton. However, that was for a fit Yantorno, one who was in the public eye every week and scoring goals. Now, Yantorno is without a team, he’s on crutches and is about to be homeless.

Only eight of the 17 senior players remaining on the books at Gretna have deals that run beyond the end of this season. All contracts have been breached by the nonpayment of wages and players would be within their rights to seek new clubs right away. “I can’t stand in their way, morally, ethically or legally,” Elliot said.

It was a grim sight. Redundancy, at any level, robs people of their spirit and self-belief. Some victims are often well compensated. That will not be happening at Gretna. The players are simply added to the club’s list of creditors. They will, if they are lucky, get a couple of weeks wages. The small Gretna FC club shop was closed, the merchandise an almost ghoulish reminder of the days in May 2006 when people thronged around Raydale Park in the build up to the Scottish Cup final.

Gretna took 12,000 people with them to Hampden Park for the game with Heart of Midlothian. Yesterday, there were just three fans who braved the pouring rain. A club whose finest hour touched the Scottish public was being given a very private funeral.

Rise and fall

1946 Gretna form under the chairmanship of Jock Kerr and begin life in the Dumfries Junior League.

1947 Move to Carlisle and District League.

1951 Form part of new Cumberland League, which lasts just one season before folding.

1982 Club admitted to Northern League second division.

1983 Earn promotion to first division at first attempt.

1991 Claim first championship.

1992 Successive title triumph sees the club promoted to the first division of the Northern Premier League. Reach FA Cup first round for the first time where they are defeated by Rochdale.

1993 Unsuccessfully apply for membership of the Scottish Football League. Beaten by Bolton Wanderers in FA Cup first round.

1999 Fail in a second bid to join the SFL.

2002 Successfully apply to join SFL after the demise of Clydebank.

2003 Finish fifth in first season in third division as benefactor Brooks Mileson joins the club, promising to take them to the top flight.

2004 Set new 13-game record of consecutive wins in third division.

2005 Seal earliest promotion from the third division with 1-0 win over Cowdenbeath. Go on to set new points record with 98 – the previous record had been 80, held by Forfar Athletic ten years earlier.

2006: Secure promotion to first division courtesy of a 2-1 win over Alloa Athletic at Raydale Park. Reach Scottish Cup final where beaten 4-2 in penalty shoot-out by Hearts after game ends 1-1 at the end of extra time. Lose 7-3 on aggregate to Derry City in second qualifying round of the Uefa Cup.

2007 Long-time manager Rowan Alexander is given leave from the club due to illness. Win title and promotion to the top flight with a 3-2 victory against Ross County on the last day of the season. James Grady hits the injury-time winner. Confirm Davie Irons as head coach then Alexander is refused entry to Fir Park for Gretna’s first SPL game against Falkirk. Formally dismiss Alexander after months of speculation. He confirms his intention to launch an appeal.

2008 February 12: The club confirms Mileson has been admitted to hospital, with tests later revealing he is suffering from a brain infection. February 18: It emerges players and staff have not been paid, with Mileson too ill to perform his weekly signing-off of the payroll. February 19: Irons and his assistant, Derek Collins, resign with immediate effect and join Morton, in first division. Mick Wadsworth, the director of football, takes over as caretaker manager. February 21: Mileson is released from hospital, expecting a full recovery from illness. March 10: Begin proceedings to move into administration. March 12: Club enters administration. Administrator David Elliot, of Wilson Field Ltd, warns Gretna have until lunchtime the next day to find £30,000 or the club will cease to exist. March 13: The deadline is extended but Elliot claims the club’s position has “deteriorated” overnight. He confirms all players are free to leave as contracts have been breached due to their wages going unpaid.