Dundee v Ayr called off after floodlights fail

AYR United manager Brian Reid saw the lights go out on his side’s relegation fight last night after a floodlight failure saw their clash with Dundee called off 15 minutes before kick-off

Reid’s side were left in the dark after a problem with the control box saw the lights fail as they tried to warm up, with around 120 fans already in the ground. But, despite failing to kick a ball after making a 230-mile round trip to Dens Park, Reid believes his injury-ravaged squad got lucky. Reid said: “I feel for the fans who have paid money to get here but in some ways it was a blessing in disguise for us. We only had 14 or 15 players and couldn’t even fill our bench. We’re not blaming Dundee, these things happen.”

Dundee operations manager Jim Thomson said: “Our floodlights are only 12 years old and we’ve never had a problem until tonight. The control box failed and there was no guarantee we could fix the problem quickly. Rather than have fans sitting in a dark ground for an hour we took the decision to call it off.”