The theory may be that they're all supposed to be neutral inside Merrion Square but it's hard to imagine that there wasn't a little discomfort over the weekend with news that Longford Town had won again to go top of the first division.

Off the pitch the club has had a bumpy ride of late but on it Stephen Kenny's team continues to move steadily in the right direction. As usual the promotion race is looking like being a dogfight that extends well into the second half of the season but right now Longford look to have a slight edge on their opponents.

That presents some difficulty for the League's officials who last summer persuaded clubs to unanimously endorse proposals setting minimum standards of facilities for clubs participating in the respective divisions. The rule takes effect next summer and while several clubs looks like falling short of where they ought to be, Longford's promotion would, barring some dramatic developments up at Strokestown Road, leave them fairly gloriously behind the posse.

On the club side Kenny insists that the new board, led by Adrian Duncan, is confident of commencing a major programme of improvements at the ground and that the construction of a 1,000-seat stand "would not be a major problem".

Even that figure would leave them 500 short of the minimum specified in the rule for Longford are effectively starting from scratch but commitments of that scale would go a long way towards reassuring League officials if, as they hope, the two sides get to sit down and discuss the situation early next month.

For the League, Brendan Menton admits that the situation is causing some concern but virtually rules out the prospect of the club being denied promotion in the event that they earn it on the pitch. "It's a situation that we're looking at the moment and Longford would not be the only club where there would be concerns regarding the rules.

"The important thing," he adds however "is that clubs are seen to be making progress. A lot of money has been spent around the country over the last few years and the benefits of that are starting to be seen now. Longford have lagged behind but hopefully they will now have the incentive to catch up, afterall, if they are promoted they are going to need far better facilities if they are serious about attracting larger crowds to Premier Division games."

In fact, Longford had hoped to complete work on the instillation of two all weather pitches before addressing the issue of their spectator facilities but their inability to persuade the FAI or League to guarantee the loans required has delayed the project.

Whether they will feel obliged to reassess their priorities over the coming weeks remains to be seen.

If not then the League management's eagerness to prod clubs along over the state of their grounds may end up coming back to haunt them next summer. The rules as they stand are clear and it is far from certain that Longford, even if they worked on the basis that they will be promoted and got going now, could conform with them between now and the start of the next campaign.

If not then the possibility of a legal challenge to the validity of their promotion being made would loom large next May. It's difficult to know how clubs will react to the possibility but it is hard, for example, to imagine Ollie Byrne allowing Shelbourne to go down without a fight in the circumstances. And even if there isn't such a challenge the ability of the League to enforce the rule at any point down the road will inevitably be weakened by a particularly soft line being adopted now.

The pity of it is that the prospect of the problem arises against a background of virtually unprecedented infrastructural progress all over the country. At Longford the club's emphasis has been on improving the club's playing structures over the past season and a half and there have clearly been enormous leaps on that front.

Just now it seems, though, that Kenny and his players have left the new board with quite a bit catching up to do which could cause some anxious moments in Dublin 2 during the last couple of months of the season.