Distillery's Cup clash with Dundela abandoned because of fog

Lisburn Distillery's Irish Cup clash with Dundela on Tuesday night had to be abandoned after an hour because of fog with the Whites leading 3-0.

Aaron Boyd's hat-trick had seemingly put Distillery on the road to a quarter-final meeting with Crusaders before the heavy fog intervened.

The Irish FA confirmed the tie will be replayed on Tuesday 26 February.

The committee ruled a replay is necessary as only 60 minutes had elapsed at New Grosvenor.

The sixth round replay means the Irish Premiership game between Lisburn Distillery and Portadown has been postponed until a later date.

Referee Andrew Davy took the players off the New Grosvenor pitch after an hour on Tuesday night in the hope that conditions would improve.

However, even though the Distillery players returned to the pitch, he had little option 15 minutes later but to abandon the game given the conditions.

The referee said that he had abandoned the game because of "player safety".

Dundela had made a promising start as Ben Roy hit the Whites woodwork with a curling 25-yard free-kick on 15 minutes.

However, the Whites took the lead 12 minutes later as Boyd ran on to a through ball from Owen Beggs to slot past keeper Paul Hughes from 12 yards.

Boyd doubled Distillery's lead on 33 minutes when he stabbed home from close range after Hughes had failed to hold a shot from Stephen Gordon.

Dundela's Kyle Cherry tested Whites keeper Lee Windrum of the stroke of half-time but the home side remained 2-0 ahead at half-time.

However, the ground was enveloped in fog by the time Boyd completed his hat-trick on 54 minutes with a goal which was not visible from the press area.

Six minutes later, referee Davy took the players off the pitch with a view to re-starting the match 15 minutes later.

However, those hopes proved misplaced as the conditions deteriorated further and the game was abandoned.