Guernsey Football Association fixtures secretary Garry Cortez, left, offers St Martin’s president Henry Davey 50p for the Blanche Pierre Lane meter after last night’s floodlight failure.

FLOODLIGHT failure resulted in last night’s Crimestoppers Guernsey FA Cup semi-final between Bels and Rangers at Blanche Pierre Lane being called off.

With the rain lashing down, the two lights in the bottom left corner of the ground went out during the warm up, leading to the kick-off being put back quarter of an hour.

The match got under way with one working, but when this was clearly too dark, the other one was turned on and all the floodlights tripped out.

Referee George Jennings made the right decision to call the match off instead of wasting time trying to get them up once more and have the possibility of them tripping out again.

You might have expected Bels coach Micky Ogier to be understandably angry about the situation, but instead he was quite pragmatic.

‘It’s one of those things,’ he said.

‘I imagine the rain has got into the system. There’s nothing you can do it about it. It’s no one’s fault.’

His opposite number at Rangers, Paul Ockleford, was clearly more disappointed as he headed off from the ground.

‘It’s disappointing and sad for everyone concerned, but it does happen,’ he said.

‘I’m sure it will bode well for a good game next time.’

The Blanche Pierre Lane floodlights are more than 20 years old and St Martin’s are waiting on a £25,000 grant from the English FA to replace them.

St Martin’s president Henry Davey said that they could be out of action for a couple of weeks.

The semi-final will be replayed on Saturday 14 March, the day after the other semi between St Martin’s and Officemaker, with a 4.30pm kick off at Blanche Pierre Lane.