AS the debts mount up and the prospect of surviving administration grows ever slimmer, the idea of Rangers going to the wall becomes increasingly likely.

For some supporters, frustrated and angered by a saga that seems to bring bad news with each passing day, there is now almost a sense that liquidation would be some sort of sweet relief. It has precipitated a raft of glib talk about the old Rangers dying and a newco emerging in its place as if it were like ripping a sticking plaster from a skinned knee; a painless solution.

The demise of Airdrieonians and emergence of Airdrie United a decade ago, however, should dispel the myth that such a move would represent a clean break. It was nothing of the sort for troubled Airdrieonians who went into liquidation after two years of fighting financial fires, unable to find a buyer willing to assume debts of around £3m. They were the first senior Scottish club to go the wall since the demise of Third Lanark some 35 years earlier.

Airdrieonians, under manager Ian McCall – who succeeded the more flamboyant Steve Archibald, who had also failed in an attempt to buy the club – had gone out on something of a high by finishing second in the first division. Blair Nimmo, the administrator, managed to keep the club afloat until the end of the season before making the tough decision that it could go on no more.

The team didn't even get to bow out on a dignified note, their last ever match abandoned after supporters invaded the pitch and broke the crossbar. Nimmo, who had been the subject of death threats while Airdrieonians had been in administration, felt they were lucky to have lasted that long. "I have never traded any business, ever, for two years and three months," he said at the time. "If this wasn't a football club, we would have closed this business within probably a matter of weeks after we were appointed."

What followed was a summer of unrest, acrimony, and difficult decisions. With Airdrieonians no more, the staff were all made redundant. McCall accepted an offer to manage Falkirk, while the players were left to find fresh employment. What was left of the club – the club's interest in the stadium, a retail unit and its name – were put up for sale.

The Scottish Football League had a hasty rejig and a vacancy emerged in the third division. Jim Ballantyne, a Glasgow businessman and Airdrieonians fan, had his eye on that place for a new club, that at this stage existed on paper only. It seemed a formality that Airdrie United would be elected but the remaining SFL clubs thought otherwise. Wary of the message it would send out if a bankrupted club was effectively allowed to return to the league without sanction, they instead plumped for another of the six teams vying for election. The irony of Airdrie missing out to Gretna would not become apparent for a further six years.

Ballantyne, however, did not take that as the final word on the matter. Clydebank, one of the clubs who had voted against Airdrie's election, were in perilous financial trouble and in similar danger of going to the wall. Ballantyne offered to buy their place in the league if the SFL would let them change the name of the club from Clydebank to Airdrie United, change the colours to Airdrie's distinctive kit, and play at the Excelsior Stadium. For all they were, in theory, a continuation of Clydebank, in reality this was Airdrieonians reborn.

There was some continuity between the old club and the new. Stephen Docherty was made redundant like the rest of the playing staff upon Airdrieonians' demise and spent a fraught summer wondering about his future until Airdrie were granted a route into league football. It presented the odd situation of him signing for a new club who played in the same strips and in the same stadium as his previous one.

To some supporters, however, the distinction was quite clear. "The older, traditional fans maybe felt the difference," said Docherty. "They didn't see Airdrie United as their club. But the younger ones were just happy to have a team to watch again."