Following in Gretna's footsteps may not seem the most prudent path to take given their recent untimely and unseemly demise. But five ambitious clubs will find out later today whether their bid to swap non-league football for a place in the Scottish Football League has been successful, as Gretna's was in 2002 when they left behind the Unibond League for six tumultuous years in the Scottish senior ranks.

Representatives from Annan Athletic, Edinburgh City, Spartans, Cove Rangers and Preston Athletic will this morning present their business and football plans to the 29 members of the SFL at a special general meeting at Hampden after which those clubs will vote to decide which of the five they wish to elect into the Irn-Bru Third Division for next season.

To help with their selection, the SFL has supplied each voting member with pertinent information on the five hopefuls, including details of each club's stadium and facilities, any planned developments, their financial situation, and other miscellaneous criteria deemed to be useful.

The first club to receive 15 votes will be accepted into the SFL set-up. If, however, the first vote fails to find an outright winner, the applicant receiving the fewest votes will drop out and a second vote taken. That will continue until the winner is decided.

All five grounds of the potential entrants were visited last week, with Annan, located just eight miles from Gretna, reportedly the SFL members' favourites to take the step up as the best-equipped club. Annan will need to install floodlights at Galabank Stadium but remain confident this will be in place before the start of the season.

Henry McLelland, their chairman, hopes his club have done enough to merit a place in the league after learning from their failed bid eight years ago. "Everything is in place for tomorrow and we are ready to put our pitch to the other chairmen," he said. "When we were unsuccessful with our bid in 2000 we realised we were far off the mark. We feel we are now ready to make the step up."

Preston Athletic, based in Prestonpans, plan on changing their name to East Lothian FC if their bid is successful to attract wider support from the region. "We want to bring the opportunity of SFL football to East Lothian, which would be completely new territory for the SFL," said Andrew Waddell, the former Grade 1 referee and now Preston Athletic secretary.

"Having an SFL team in East Lothian would create a new interest, a new market and a fresh demand. Preston Athletic is a club which is always in the black and is not owned by any single individual. We have a recent history of being involved in the Scottish Cup and our ground, with a few amendments, is ready for third division football."

Spartans' new Ainslie Park stadium will not be completed until the beginning of September and, should they win election to the SFL, they would play their opening home league matches at Meadowbank Stadium, home of Edinburgh City, one of their bid rivals.

The north Edinburgh club have been trumpeting their future plans during their pitch for league status and Craig Graham, Spartans' chairman, hoped the voting clubs would recognise the size of their ambition. "We are looking forward to the vote," he said. "We have talked to a lot of the clubs and they have been enthusiastic. The clubs seem to be looking at what we bring to the competition. If we don't make it then other clubs will have argued their case better than us and we will have to accept that. But we feel we have a great deal to offer the SFL. We've got a good story to tell, looking at our fan base, community focus and our impact on the pitch."

In terms of celebrity backers, few can match the support given to Cove Rangers, the Highland League champions. Sir Alex Ferguson has already given Cove, based in a suburb of Aberdeen, his backing and yesterday Alex McLeish, another Aberdeen old boy who will pick up an honorary degree from the city's university later today, also lent his support.

"I've got a soft spot for Cove Rangers from Aberdeen and I'd love to see them being taken into the Scottish set-up because I think they've got a lot to offer," he said. "It's run by superb people, so I know the infrastructure of the club is sound and that they would be a credit to the Scottish league."

Cove have plans to construct a new £5m community stadium at Calder Park to replace their 2300-capacity Allan Park home and Keith Moorhouse, their chairman, believes they have a chance of succeeding today after losing out to Gretna in 2002.

"We are going ahead with our application, we are being completely realistic and our heads certainly aren't in the clouds," he said. "We believe we have a reasonable chance but we are fully aware the whole thing will hinge on the SFL clubs' view of our new facility for obvious reasons. We know Allan Park was the reason we didn't succeed last time."

Edinburgh City hope the availability of Meadowbank Stadium may swing the vote in their favour. "We made an application in 2002 and when Gretna resigned in the summer we were well prepared to make a bid," said Grant Coffin, their secretary. "When the SFL delegation visited Meadowbank Stadium recently there was nothing that we felt uncomfortable with. Meadowbank is capable of holding big matches and we had over 2000 spectators in a game against Manchester United in 2003. The dressing rooms are spacious and we have floodlighting. The stadium is SFL compliant and we could play a third division game there immediately."