Gretna players and staff will discover on Monday if there is a future for the stricken club. Potential investors have been given until Saturday to table a firm offer or the Dumfriesshire club will be wound up with debts of around £4m.

Wilson Field, the administrators, are not open for business at the weekend, so staff will need to wait a further two days before learning their fate.

The Herald understands a consortium led by Paul Davies, a Glasgow-based football agent, is weighing up the viability of a bid ahead of the deadline. Craig Williamson, chairman of the Gretna Supporters Society, remains hopeful the club can be rescued from the brink, but is sceptical as to whether the Scottish Football League would ratify any takeover and allow the team to compete in the Irn-Bru First Division next season.

"We hear there is a possible bid going to be made, so we live in hope," Williamson said. "But I do wonder whether the SFL really want Gretna in there next season. The SFL is made up of club chairmen who maybe think Brooks Mileson has made a mockery of Scottish football and might be glad to see the back of the club."

Gretna completed their Clydesdale Bank Premier League fixtures with something of a flourish on Tuesday night, defeating Hearts 1-0.

Mick Wadsworth, who had been in temporary charge of the team in the latter stages of the season, confessed he was in the dark as to what the future held for both him and the club.

He said: "The season's now over for us, so the loan players have gone back to their clubs. The remaining players will now start to look for alternative employment. I'm in the dark about a possible takeover bid.

"It's difficult to get detailed information so we just keep plodding along. I'm out of work now so I will have to see what comes along. We will have to see what work is out there for an unemployed coach."

Neither Davies nor David Elliot, of Wilson Field, were available for comment.