YORK City manager Gary Mills is instructing his players to take “full advantage” of their nearest rivals’ continued involvement in this season’s FA Cup.

Fellow Blue Square Bet Premier high-fliers Fleetwood, Luton and Gateshead all won through to the second round at the weekend while the winners of the replay between top-of-the-table Wrexham and third-placed Cambridge next week will go on to join them.

That means at least four of City’s top-seven rivals will be playing Cup ties a fortnight on Saturday when Mills’ team entertain lowly Kettering in the Blue Square Bet Premier.

Should Wrexham get knocked out by Cambridge, the Welsh club could also still be without a fixture on second round weekend should scheduled opponents Tamworth win their replay at home to Hinckley United.

Wrexham are already counting the cost of Friday night’s 2-2 draw at Cambridge where key defender Mark Creighton suffered a hamstring injury that could now keep him out of league action.

On the possible positives of City’s early Cup exit, Mills said: “Things will start to pan out over the next few games as they always do.

“If we get a result at Barrow on Saturday, it keeps us up there and we won’t go any lower than fourth with the possibility of going third.

“By the time we get to the weekend when the others are playing in the Cup and we are playing in the league, we will hopefully be in a position where we can go even higher and we will need to take full advantage of that.”

Mills also expressed his relief that December 3 opponents Kettering were knocked out of the world-famous competition at Sutton United on Saturday, adding: “We did not want another Saturday without a match and it will be a big week for us because we have also got Lincoln at home on the Tuesday before.”

The City chief went on to admit that he was not shocked by how close Barrow – his side’s hosts on Saturday – came to pulling off a first round upset at home to Rotherham.

An early Paul Rutherford goal saw the Bluebirds lead until the 82nd minute before Lewis Grabben’s late brace settled the tie in the League Two side’s favour.

Mills said: “I wasn’t surprised that they ran Rotherham close. In fact, I was surprised that they didn’t win.

“Their home form is as good as anybody’s in this division.

“They’ve won six, drawn one and lost two which proves it’s a tough place to go but we’ve been addressing that.”

City right-back Lanre Oyebanjo was an unused substitute during the Republic of Ireland under-21s’ 2-0 European Championship qualifier win over Liechtenstein on Monday night.

City team-mate Paddy McLaughlin also watched from the bench as Northern Ireland succumbed to two late goals to lose 2-0 at home to Serbia in their qualifier.