The FAI National League is prepared to meet Derry City head on in the High Court this morning after efforts to stop Derry seeking an injunction to prevent tonight's FAI National League transfer tribunal meeting setting fees for three Derry players failed last night.

It seems that only an eleventh-hour agreement on the steps of the High Court will now prevent Derry from following through with their threat to try to stop the National League setting transfer fees for Gavin Dykes, James Keddy and Richie Purdy, whom they believed they signed for free under the Bosman ruling last season.

The National League's president, Michael Hyland, and Paul Walsh, its executive secretary, had worked behind closed doors all day yesterday in an effort to keep the case out of court, but last night they were preparing their case for today's hearing.

Hyland said that he was disappointed that a solution hadn't been found. "We are going into the High Court to defend the action taken by the National League," said Hyland last night. "I was hoping that Derry might have withdrawn their court proceedings. But they are sticking to their decision. There does not seem to be any room for compromise."

Derry City and the National League said, after Derry's statement of their intentions to take the matter to the High Court at a press conference on Monday night, that the issue could be sorted out if further talks took place. But that was conditional on the tribunal being postponed.

Naturally, neither side is keen to go to court on the issue, but Derry are adamant that they will fight the case all the way.