DUBLIN club St Francis, who reached the final of the Harp Lager FAI Cup as a non league club in 1990, have had their path to the second round of this year's competition made considerably more difficult by a particularly strange interpretation of the rules.

The club, who stepped into the first division of the National League when St James's Gate were expelled, have been told that all of their reserve team players are cup tied on the basis that they have already appeared in this season's Intermediate Cup.

In fact, the reserve team qualified for the Senior Cup in their own right with a win over Crumlin United in the Intermediate Cup but were excluded from the senior competition as the rules prohibit reserve teams of National League clubs from competing.

Now, however, St Francis manager, Peter Mahon, is struggling to field a squad of first team players at Longford on Sunday and he has been told that because his reserve players have already appeared in the Intermediate Cup, they are not eligible to play this weekend.

"We're not exactly happy campers at the moment," said Mahon yesterday "and I'm certainly a little bit annoyed. I thought, there might be a bit of goodwill extended here given that we came into the league at two weeks notice."

The decision means that the Dubliners, who normally operate off a panel of around 16 players will be reduced to 13 by the enforced absence of two players, Ciaran Duffy and Leo Freeman, who have broken into the first team over the course of this season while injuries to Thomas Clarke and Noel Griffin mean that Mahon is likely to go to Longford with just 12 fit senior players.

"I can accept injuries, they're part of the game, but this ruling is terrible. It's the first time since 1990 that the club got through to this stage of the Cup through the Intermediate competition and it's a letdown that the side aren't being allowed to compete.

"Even that makes some sense, though, but I just can't see why, I am then not allowed to bring in reserves who have only played for this club this season. This means I have to bring in lads from the schoolboys and they've got an important game on Sunday morning too," he says.

The latest problems have compounded what was a disappointing draw for the Dublin club in the first place with Mahon pointing out that, on their first appearance in the competition by right, they had been hoping for a more glamorous assignment.

"In previous years when we made it this far there was always a great buzz around the club but this year it has been a bit flat. Obviously we were hoping to get St Patrick's or Shelbourne but we'll just have to hope that we make it through and get them in the next round now."

Sligo, meanwhile, travelled to Cobb yesterday still unsure of whether leading scorer James Mulligan would be still with the club when the game kicked off this evening.

"The lad has made it completely clear that he wants to go and we've had a lot of interest from other National League clubs but he doesn't seem to be interested in them, so we don't know, what is happening," said Rovers manager Jimmy Mullen yesterday. If Mullen does decide to join another domestic club, Derry City would appear to be his most likely destination.