UPDATE 2-Soccer-Gretna given Thursday deadline by administrator

(recasts after SPL comment)

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Debt-ridden Scottish Premier League (SPL) club Gretna face closure if they fail to raise 30,000 pounds ($60,410) by Thursday, but salvation may come with financial assistance from the league itself.

"We need to find 30,000 pounds to enable the club to fulfil its fixture on Saturday," administrator David Elliot of Wilson Field told a news conference on Wednesday.

"That is emergency funding for wages and overnight stay and transport. Unless Gretna get 30,000 pounds by lunchtime tomorrow the club is finished."

However, the SPL said it was considering an advance payment to Gretna of its fees, which clubs usually receive at the end of each season from the league's broadcasting and advertising contracts.

"We informed the administrators today that we could look at the possibility of advancing fees on the basis that we would receive reassurances that all of Gretna's league fixtures would be fulfilled," said SPL spokesman Greig Mailer.

The payment would amount to a 'six-figure sum', Mailer said, adding that talks between the SPL and the administrators were likely to continue on Thursday.

Directors of the club, which is around 4 million pounds in debt, passed a resolution at a board meeting last Friday to place the club into administration.

Gretna, who are scheduled to play Aberdeen on Saturday, have only six points and are at the bottom of the table after they were docked an automatic 10 points by the SPL on Wednesday. (Reporting by Martyn Herman, John Mehaffey and Raissa Kasolowsky)