In football terms, Gretna FC are now in stoppage time. The referee — sorry, administrator — is looking at his watch and unless someone makes a move soon, it will all be over. The club, whose rise and fall has captured the attention of the Scottish game over the last six years, is on the verge of being wound up today.

Gretna played their last match in their ill-fated short lifespan in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League last Tuesday. They went out on a high, as far as events on the pitch were concerned, defeating Heart of Midlothian 1-0. Now that the anaesthetic provided by the distraction of matches has worn off, the painful reality is swiftly setting in.

The club, which is £4 million in debt — more than double that, if shareholder claims are accepted — runs out of cash today, according to the administrator, David Elliot, of Wilson Field Ltd. The last of the £100,000 advance from the Scottish Premier League has gone. The club could receive a winding-up order today and the doors at Raydale Park could be shut for good on Monday, with 40 staff made redundant.

The only hope is that a white knight will enter the picture at the last minute and save the black and whites. Rumour and counter-rumour persisted yesterday about the intentions of Paul Davies, a players’ agent based in Glasgow. Davies was reported to be close to buying Gretna, who were plunged into administration in March when their owner, Brooks Mileson, withdrew his backing following an illness.

Mileson, an accessible mediafriendly millionaire who accompanied Gretna on the way up as the club rose from fledgling Scottish Football League entrants in 2002, rising to the top flight in 2007 after three successive promotions and an appearance in the 2006 Scottish Cup final against Hearts, has been a recluse since the financial trouble unfolded.

Ron MacGregor, the Gretna chairman, insisted yesterday that Mileson’s illness is genuine and stated that the former owner is set to have more hospital tests to examine a brain infection. The club he left behind, however, is in limbo. Key players such as Gavin Skelton and Greg Fleming are trying to fix up a new team rather than wait to find out of the Gretna can survive. Others in the Raydale dressing-room are not so fortunate.

If a deal cannot be struck with Davies, the administrators controlling the debt-ridden club’s affairs will padlock the gates on Monday and issue the few remaining staff and players with redundancy notices. MacGregor has been working closely with Davies — the son of the Gretna stadium security chief, Ken Davies — and the Glasgow businessman’s takeover is also being backed by the Gretna Supporters’ Society.

Even the local politicians have joined in. David Mundell, the MP for Dumfriesshire, met yesterday with David Longmuir, the chief executive of the Scottish Football League to discuss the club’s future. Gretna have known for some time that they would be going down but relegation to the Irn-Bru Scottish League first division would seem like winning the Scottish Cup right now, compared to the bleak option of going into oblivion.

“It is going to go right to the wire, but I am guardedly optimistic that the club will survive,” MacGregor said yesterday. “I would be very, very sorry if this bid, which has been worked on with great deal of attention, didn’t succeed and there were all the consequences that would go with that. It has been very stressful but we can’t get away from the tragedy with Brooks, who has had a brain infection and is facing more tests.”

Mundell’s meeting with the SFL was to ensure that should a credible bid be made for the club, the process of rejoining the Scottish Football League would be made simple. Gretna are in limbo following their relegation from the Premier League, as they would be rejoining the SFL under new ownership. “I want to see Gretna readmitted to the SFL,” Mundell said. “There is local support for the team, as personified by the supporters’ association, and people want the club to carry on playing in the SFL.

“I want to make sure the SFL understands there is support locally for Gretna continuing — the team was successful in the football league before and there is no reason to suggest that can’t happen again. Fans should not be punished and should not lose their football club playing in a competitive football league because of what happened behind the scenes, providing the league is satisfied with any new financial arrangements.’’

If a deal is agreed, the newly formed creditors’ committee — made up of five individuals owed money by the club — will vote on whether to accept the offer. The creditors’ committee is made up of the SPL, the Inland Revenue, Alastair Barron, the Dumfries architect who designed the new ground, and Cumbrian businessmen Maurice Watson and Malcolm Dunn.

Other reports state that Davies’ consortium want an extension to this weekend’s deadline as the confusion continues about the distribution of the club’s debt. MacGregor also knows that the Scottish League will be very stringent about accepting a team back into the first division whose financial health is so poor.

“There are rules if a club goes into administration and I would expect there will be stiff conditions if Gretna are to return,” he said. “The AGM of the SFL is at the end of the month and no doubt any application would have to go before it.”

The play-off final losers will be promoted if Gretna fail to find a buyer. Airdrie United are standing by to take their place in the first division; Stranraer would come up from the third division. Another club would be invited to join the league to complete the 42-team structure.