Gretna will fold at the end of the season if a buyer cannot be found for the stricken club, the administrators confirmed yesterday. The Clydesdale Bank Premier League’s bottom side will run out of cash just four days after they complete their final top-flight fixture with Heart of Midlothian on May 13.

The Borders club, who reached the Scottish Cup final in 2006, went into administration in March with debts of £9 million. After a creditors’ meeting in Gretna yesterday, Wilson Field Ltd, the administrators, said it had been decided to let the side continue to play their remaining two Premier League fixtures.

However, if no deal can be done to take over the club by a May 17 deadline then it will go out of business. David Elliot, of Wilson Field Ltd, said there were still four potential buyers.

“The proposal is that we continue to trade and allow the club to continue to play football until the end of the season while we seek a buyer,” he said. “We have got four interested parties and I would like to remain hopeful that one will come through before the end of the season.”

Gretna’s final league match is on May 13, but Elliot said they would remain “in funds” until four days after that. “At that point, to be quite frank with you, we stop,” he said. He added that if no buyer could be found then the remaining 40 staff at the club would be made redundant.

Gretna’s financial crisis emerged in February when their long-term backer, Brooks Mileson, withdrew his support. More than £6 million is owed to shareholders. The administrators propose they will take steps to wind up the affairs of the company and place it into creditors voluntary liquidation (CVL), which would see Gretna “cease to trade”.

The administrators have revealed Gretna’s bleak future in black and white. The club has a total of £760,583 worth of assets including property and £2,933 in the bank but it also has bills for tax, loans, employees and trade and expenses totalling £3.73 million. The most notable of those is a loan to the former club owner, Mileson, of £1.9 million.

A number of clubs are also named as creditors including Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Celtic and Everton. Gretna’s groundshare landlords, Motherwell, are a £44,500 creditor and the University of Cumbria, where Gretna used to train, are owed £74,000, with Strathclyde Police claiming £12,600.