JUNIOR OUTFIT Clydebank are among the eight teams to date who have asked for an application pack in the race to take over the Scottish Football League place vacated by Gretna, the Sunday Herald has learned.

This coming Thursday is the deadline for clubs to make formal applications to fill the gap caused when administrators at Gretna resigned the club's membership earlier in the week, and although the prospect of Clydebank returning to senior football five years after their re-birth in the junior ranks would hold a sentimental appeal for many, the Sunday Herald understands they have decided not take their interest any further.

They currently ground share with Drumchapel Amateurs at Glenhead Park in Duntocher and that is thought to be an insurmountable obstacle to them meeting SFL criteria in the short term. "It is important to emphasise that our focus remains to be a successful club within the junior game," Clydebank chairman Gordon Robertson said last night.

Clydebank's interest may be more down to a fact-finding exercise, and sending out a signal of their long-term ambition to fans, but the fact that a junior club has even gone to the bother of picking up an application pack will surprise those who felt the process was destined to be a straight shoot-out between the four who have gone public on their interest already - East of Scotland league trio Spartans, Preston Athletic and Annan Athletic, and Highland League champions Cove Rangers.

The SFL have yet to receive any formal applications whatsoever, but the three other interested yet undeclared clubs are all thought to come from the East of Scotland league - one of whom is almost certainly Gala Fairydean and another likely to be Edinburgh City.

"What I can say is that eight clubs have requested application packs," an SFL spokesman said, "but to date we have not received any formal applications."

The actual decision itself won't be taken until July 3, after clubs have first been subjected to a preliminary audit by the league management committee and then permitted to give a short presentation at Hampden prior to a vote of the 29 remaining member clubs.

The early favourites in this process are Spartans, the club based in the north of Edinburgh which can call upon the celebrity endorsement of Celtic manager Gordon Strachan and boast the imminent arrival of a new state-of-the-art ground and training academy at Ainslie Park, but where potential entrants to the SFL are concerned things don't always follow in logical order.

Few know more about how such matters can resolve themselves than Airdrie United boss Jim Ballantyne, who recalls giving a presentation seven years ago, convinced that his side had the best business case, only to find the audience had largely made up their minds that accepting their offer would be the wrong message to send out. Instead it was Gretna who were admitted. The rest, as they say, is history.

"It certainly didn't work logically when Airdrie were trying to get in, there is no doubt about that," Ballantyne said.

"Airdrie had by far the strongest case, the best stadium and the best crowd base, but it appears that many thought it was the wrong signal to send out about clubs from one area going bust and then applying to come straight back in and I can partly understand that. That won't happen this time unless there is some sort of bid from Gretna to come back."

History may not repeat itself exactly this time around, although politics and geography are both likely to come into play.

In the SFL's previous applications, first in 1993-94 when Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Ross County were admitted to the league; then 1999-00 when Peterhead and Elgin came in; and finally in 2002 with Gretna, member clubs have preferred to look further afield than the central belt, with Edinburgh-based teams such as Edinburgh City and Whitehill Welfare being noticeably passed over.

Although it is arguable that away trips to Edinburgh are preferable for central belt clubs than journeys up to Cove, it is enough of a trend for Spartans' general manager Derick Rodier to have at least a little concern about the matter.

"Teams surrounding Edinburgh have been in the mix before and didn't get the application through, but you could argue with a city the size of Edinburgh now is the time to look again," Rodier said.

"I don't see why they shouldn't go for an ambitious club if it benefits the league. The chairmen who are voting on this will want the league to improve. People are saying we are favourites, but we are not thinking that way. For a start we don't know who is going to go in for it."

This is precisely why Preston Athletic are so keen to expand beyond Prestonpans, and have already applied to East Lothian council for permission to change their name to East Lothian FC in an attempt to appeal to one of the larger population bases of the country which is effectively untouched by senior football.

"There is a gap from Hibernian to Berwick Rangers and that is basically where we are, there is no other main county that doesn't have a senior team," said Andrew Waddell, the former Grade One referee who is now secretary of Preston Athletic. "Basically, without sounding too evangelical here, we have got 100,000 people to bring league football to."

Fort William, in the Highland League, could theoretically attempt the same for the north west of Scotland were it not for the fact such terrain is largely shinty territory.

"Every club is going to have its own checklist of what is good for them but we also have to look to see what is good for the SFL in total," explains Ballantyne. "The club we bring in has to be ambitious, have decent finances and a long-term plan and have facilities which are at least on a par with clubs already in the SFL."

However the member clubs arrive at their decision, it is worth noting that they have a decent track record at this business. Inverness CT, Ross County, Peterhead and Gretna have all made progress through the divisions - and Elgin City are the exception that proves the rule.