Luton 1 Gillingham 0

(match abandoned after 45 minutes)

GILLINGHAM supporters were kept waiting for Tommy Johnson’s debut after the floodlights went out on a bizarre night for the club at Kenilworth Road.

Seventy-four Gills fans made the trip to Luton ready to acclaim the former Aston Villa, Derby and Celtic striker.

Instead they had to content themselves with a mere glimpse of Johnson warming up before the lights flickered and died.

The decision to abandon the match for what was described as a severe electrical failure provoked fury among the Gills fans who had paid £10 admission and £2 for a programme. A good many had also forked out a further £15 on rail fares.

They surrounded Luton stewards in what proved an unsuccessful attempt to claim refunds as the club sought to evacuate the ground as quickly as possible.

Luton secretary Cherry Newbery said: “We suffered from a severe electrical failure and for safety reasons we were left with no alternative but to abandon the match.”

An evening that started badly for Gillingham got progressively worse after the team coach became stuck in heavy traffic congestion on the way to the ground.

They eventually arrived at 7.25 pm, forcing the scheduled 7.45pm kick off to be put back to 8pm.

By that time the heavens had opened and torrential rain quickly saturated the pitch. When the floodlights ominously started flickering midway through the half, Gillingham must have known it was not going to be their night.

When the lights eventually went out, referee Keith Hill allowed the match to continue until half-time before abandoning the game.

At the time Gillingham were trailing to a 44th minute goal scored by Matthew Spring who volleyed the ball into the net off Barry Ashby after goalkeeper Vince Bartram had punched out Kevin Nicholls’ free kick.

Before Spring struck, the match was meandering towards half-time deadlock as neither attack impressed.

Gillingham's defence of Nyron Nosworthy, Barry Ashby, Chris Hope and Roland Edge had the measure of the Luton attack while up front the visitors' best attempts on goal came from Ashby and skipper Paul Smith.

Gillingham lost Paul Shaw with a knee injury after 26 minutes when he was replaced by Kevin James.

Player-manager Andy Hessenthaler may have left Luton’s arch-rivals Watford for Priestfield in August, 1996 but was still roundly booed by home fans who overlooked the fact that Ashby and David Perpetuini were once at Vicarage Road.

But that was the least of Hessenthaler’s problems on a night when his pre-season planning was severely disrupted.

Luton: Emberson; Neilson, Coyne, Bayliss, Kimble; Robinson, Nicholls, Spring, Kinet; Thorpe, Howard.

Gillingham: Bartram; Nosworthy, Ashby, Hope, Edge; Hessenthaler, Smith, Shaw (James 26 mins), Perpetuini; Sidibe, Ipoua.