So, what was it this time? A perfectly good goal ruled offside, an injury time winner for the other side perhaps or they beat you with their only shot on target. Whatever your latest gripe or grievance, I’m sure we could share many tales of football misfortune.

Losing or even failing to win is hard to take sometimes when you should’ve won. But just imagine for a moment how you’d feel if your team let’s say had just doubled their lead in a cup match against 10 men with only eight minutes to go. Then, without warning, you see it all slip through your fingers when the floodlights go out and the game is abandoned. Now that’s what I call bad luck. Only this really happened. I was there and it will go down as my best experience as a commentator at a football match.

The date was January 7, 2017, and a crowd of around 1,500 at Mariners Park had already been treated to a terrific cup match as South Shields, the home side and favourites for the FA Vase, were up against reigning champions Morpeth Town in arguably the tie of the fourth round.

Living up to our expectations and then some

With countless chances, the sending-off of ex-Premier League player Julio Arca and some wonderful goals, this had it all. Even the referee got in on the act when he dismissed a player for what he thought was a second bookable offence, and then brought him back after realising that the player concerned hadn’t even booked in the first place. Yes, it really was that kind of game.

Having trailed against 10 men early in the second half, Morpeth Town took the lead for the first time at 3-2 before Liam Henderson’s thunderbolt in off the underside of the bar appeared to wrap up the contest. Seconds later though the pitch was plunged into darkness. The floodlights packed up and the partisan home crowd started cheering.

Apart from a few lights coming from the clubhouse, the only other source of light I could see from my elevated commentary position at the back of the main stand were fans swaying their mobile phone torches.

Never put in a situation like this before during a live broadcast, I really could have done with a contingency plan. But I just wasn’t prepared. Sat down with my co-commentator Stuart Dick, the then head of media at Morpeth Town, and surrounded by hundreds of fans, I could barely see my notes sprawled on top of a blue clipboard hanging across the tops of my knees.

Three fans in front of us could hear me struggling with my notes and, realising my predicament, twisted their bodies towards me holding up their mobile phone torches. The only problem was it didn’t actually make much of a difference because to my dismay I’d either already used up a lot of my prep or what I had left just wasn’t relevant. I had no other material to fall back on. No pre-recorded audio worth playing under the circumstances. No studio to go back to either. It was basically just me, Stuart, a pair of headphones, a phone to speak into and the fans around us.

Cutting short the live broadcast until we had further news would have been madness, even unforgivable. It would have been wrong, pure and simple. We had a developing story and certainly a unique one as far as I was concerned. We still had a picture to paint even though there was little to see. To compound matters, no one really knew what was going to happen next but in a strange kind of way that only added the icing on the top of an already delicious cake. The suspense was just as good as the match and I was loving it.

There was a great buzz around the place coming from the fans so it was only right to find out from them what they were actually thinking. Taking advantage of the situation, I returned to the three fans who helped us out earlier and encouraged them to have a chat with me live on air and, amazingly, it turned out they were Sunderland season ticket holders who turned down the chance to watch their team play only a few miles down the road in a FA Cup tie. What’s even more remarkable is that I saw two of them again at Mariners Park while I was covering at a FA Cup match. Only this time they were actually sat next to me.

Still in the dark…until

Back to the drama and finally we had something of a breakthrough after 5pm. Something concrete. We had an announcement coming over on the public address system that a decision on the outcome of the game would be made at half five. Now, that was still anyone’s guess but to my mind there could only have been only two choices on the table. Either play out the remaining few minutes if that was possible or award the tie to Morpeth. It just made common sense. But as this was potentially a matter for the FA to resolve, they couldn’t just allow emotion to influence their decision or go with what they felt was right. They had their own rules for dealing with these matters and in due course it all hinged on one important but simple question – was either club at fault for the floodlight failure?

Finally the moment we’d all been waiting more than 45 minutes for had come. With no possibility of the teams coming back on, referee Aaron Bannister decided to abandon the game. The FA had an important call to make and, two days later, they ordered a replay at Mariners Park, attributing no blame whatsoever towards one club or the other.

Dealing with the backlash

The decision still seemed incredibly harsh on Morpeth Town and I’d be very surprised if even to this day there still aren’t at least a few South Shields fans who feel the same way. The FA found South Shields to be in no way responsible for the floodlight failure. But, in the intervening days before the replay, there was a strong feeling of ill-will towards the club and that probably prompted them under no obligation to put forward their version of events even though they’d been exonerated.

According to the club, the floodlight failure had something to do with a diesel generator while Morpeth Town releasing a statement of their own identified the engine driving the generator as the problem.

Thoughts had to turn quickly to the replay scheduled for the following Wednesday but then, in another twist, it was switched to Morpeth Town’s Craik Park as the lights at Mariner’s Park could not be fixed in time.

Still no real consolation for Morpeth Town. Understandably, the abandonment of the game, to use their words, came as a “massive disappointment” because wherever they were going to play, after everything that had happened, the chances of them raising their game again to re-produce another classic would have been a very tall order, at least psychologically.

And the tie effectively blew itself out with a very much galvanised South Shields side grabbing an early double before going through with a straightforward 4-0 win.

Town’s defence of the FA Vase withered and died under the glare of their own floodlights that night and, just over four months later, South Shields justified their favourites’ tag by winning the competition for the first time in their history at Wembley.

In a non-league game of its own

As hard luck stories go, it’s one that Morpeth Town aren’t likely to forget in a hurry although they probably wish they could.

Personally, as a neutral, that game at Mariner’s Park will always be remembered as the one that began at 3pm and finished at 5:30pm without a result. A hard luck story that’s probably hard to beat unless you’ve got one of your own or have experienced a great match that didn’t finish for whatever reason. If you do, please let me know. And if you can think of a fairer way to settle an abandoned match when one team has a clear advantage, get back to me with your ideas.