Derry City emerge through the fog as FAI Cup final gets a smoky start

That’s a sturdy old pitch in the Aviva Stadium. On Friday night, it played host to a combined 30 rampaging Irish and Argentinian men, some of them with the physique of a double-decker bus, and come Sunday, it had 44 Derry and Waterford feet skipping all over it. Yet it still looked like a snooker table, when most lawns resemble The Everglades this weather, even after just pitter-pattering over them to get to the washing line.

Met Éireann had been handing out status yellow fog alerts all weekend, and after flares were let loose as the teams emerged from the tunnel for the FAI Cup final, our commentator Des Curran must have thought the warnings had been upgraded to red for the Ballsbridge area.