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| Playing In The Dark |
Last night one of the four floodlights at Edgar Street failed. Only three of the nine lights were working at the start of the game on the floodlight situated between the Len Weston and the Meadow End.
Luckily the failure happened during the seven minutes of added time at the end of the second half.
Had it happened earlier in the game it's quite likely the referee would have abandoned the game.
The next home game is against Kidderminster on Boxing Day.
And given there are not many working days before the game it's imperative something is done.
New floodlights were to have been installed a couple of months ago. All the equipment required is understood to be on site. But when the installation started it was discovered that the water table was higher than originally planned for.
So, reportedly, the contractors decided they would have to beef up the design. In essense it was thought put more concrete around the base of the columns.
But weeks later nothing has happened, maybe it's more of a problem than thought.
Chairman Chris Ammonds isn't happy.
"Rest assured I share the concerns about the floodlights and we will be pushing even harder with our contractor for a solution to the issue which has caused the installation delay."
If installation can't take place before Boxing Day, and that seems very unlikely, what could be done?
One solution could be to hire in additional lights for the game, the BBC did this when Hereford played Portsmouth in the FA Cup.
Another could be to bring forward the kick-off to, say, 1pm.
Whatever the club decides there will be additional costs unless, of course, the ageing floodlights can be somehow tweaked for another game.