“A quarter of a million pounds on floodlights and then a fuse goes out — frightening,” said a visibly exasperated John McGlynn, breaking into a disbelieving smile.
The Raith Rovers manager was speaking in the immediate aftermath of the abandoned Fife derby against Dunfermline; a bundle of adrenaline and match-night energy with nowhere to go.
“You’re on an emotional roller-coaster all day,” he continued. “You get up in the morning and you have to wait until quarter-to-eight for a game.
“I ended up walking from Wallyford to Musselburgh, getting a coffee and walking back — just to to kill time!
“Everyone was here — the atmosphere; both stands raging; the noise. And it’s pulled away from you.
“It’s a bit of a gutter. It’s a nightmare.”
Raith director Bill Clark put the price-tag for those new floodlights — being given their first outing on Friday — at closer to £180,000 and they were ultimately fixed prior to the game kicking off.
However, the inability to restore power to the concourses of the Penman and McDiarmid Stands, allied with hundreds of fans queuing outside, created insurmountable health and safety issues.
“I saw the fourth official pulling over the referee,” added McGlynn. “I wondered if someone had said something untoward in the dugout. You’re thinking: ‘It’s a bit early for that!’
“But the officials pulled us across and said there was no electricity in either of the two stands behind the goal, there is no CCTV working and there are 500 fans outside trying to get in — it’s a safety issue.
“The players weren’t happy and we can only apologise, it was something that was unforeseen.
“As a football club, we’ll need to see what the issue was and how we can fix that issue.”
