It was the sort of afternoon that sets you to thinking that maybe, just maybe, this football lark really isn't the way the good Lord likes to see us pass our time down here.
Driving rain with a biting wind and a surface so slippery that Torville and Dean would have looked pretty much at home. It was, in short, never going to be a classic.
Had the conditions merely been awful from the outset perhaps the players would have managed to adapt to it. But as it happened they simply worsened as the game went on with the result that by the end both sides were having trouble controlling the most simple of passes. Possession was routinely exchanged in midfield and what passed for finishing often seemed to amount to little more than various players picking a general area and hoping for the best.
In the circumstances, the Cork manager, Dave Barry, said afterwards that he was pleased that his men managed to create half a dozen decent chances. "We could have been coming away 2-1 winners but all credit to Dundalk they made it hard for us and in the second half they were happy to sit back on their lead and wait for the time to run out on us."
Sure enough time did run out although it's notable that in the moments immediately before the whistle it was the home side who seemed the more likely to add to the scoring. With some 90 seconds remaining they took full advantage of their opponents' fatigue, moving the ball quickly out of defence and into the gaping holes left by stranded Corkmen. Only when the ball reached the last man, Paul Carlyle, did things unravel for his shot, like so much before it on the day, was affected by the wind into which it was fired, and Noel Mooney did well to gather.
By that stage neither side was deriving much advantage from the conditions. For the last 20 minutes Barry attempted to salvage something by bringing in an extra striker but only once did John Caulfield get onto the end of something he could really sink his teeth into and then, with five minutes remaining, Steve Williams made a fine stop to his right.
The save ensured that the Englishman finished the day with his third clean sheet of the league campaign although his chances of doing that should have been killed off back in the 28th minute.
Then, after Derek Coughlan had dispossessed Brian Byrne out wide John Cotter was sent goalwards as the defence opted to play the youngster off side. The move was ill-timed but the striker, once he had done the hard part of pulling inside Williams, delayed too long himself with the shot allowing Kevin Brady to scramble back and block.
It was the best chance of the day and had it gone in there is little doubt that the southerners would have taken something home with them. Instead they found themselves behind six minutes later when David Hoey arrived on the right hand side of the box just in the nick of time to drive Peter Withnell's flick on low and hard past Mooney.
City did try to play their way back into the game with Patsy Freyne trying to turn things in midfield and Jason Kabia hurtling about up front but unfortunately for them the former's lack of full fitness prevented him from taking a firmer grip in a scrappy midfield while the latter's poor first touch was more than once the cause of a missed opportunity. On another day the two might well have been able to turn the tide.
The home side, meanwhile, have finally managed to halt a run of three league defeats and nearly 400 minutes played without a goal. "I've always said that it was only the absence of the odd goal here and there that was letting us down over the last few games," said Jim McLaughlin. "That's what we saw out there today where players Paul Carlyle and Tom McNulty showed the value of their experience in midfield."
The points, which draw the Lillywhites level with Derry in sixth place will be welcome indeed but the fact that they were earned against Cork and the elements may be of longer term significance. After all, when your looking for a boost to your flagging confidence you can't hope to overcome a much tougher combination than that.
