LIGHTNING — or rather a lack of lighting — struck twice as Bewdley Town’s trip to Lye Town on Tuesday was abandoned before it had even started.

After a half-hour delay floodlight failure resulted in the game being called off which mirrored an incident at Bewdley last season when the two sides suffered a simliar fate.

Joint-manager Craig Payton saw the funny side, but was frustrated his side were close to full strength for the first time this season.

With only Chris Hough missing due to illlness that swept the club last week Payton said: “It’s a coincidence as this happened last year when we played them.

“But to be be fair to Lye they did everything they could, it’s just one of those things that happens at this level.”

Now Payton will instead turn his attentions to back-to-back home fixtures against Wolverhampton Casuals on Saturday and Willenhall Town on Tuesday.

Following a poor start to the season that sees Bewdley languishing in the bottom five rather than the top he is hoping for better fortunes.

“It’s a mish mash at the moment and we are gutted to be where we are. “It’s not going for us at the moment, we keep losing by the odd goal.”

That was borne out by a 2-1 defeat at Malvern in the West Midland Regional League on Saturday in which goals from Reece King and Louis Loarder cancelled out a strike from makeshift striker Richie Costello.

Payton added: “I thought we were the better team but it’s about putting the ball in the net. We just need it to go for us, it doesn’t matter how it goes in.

“I hoping we can start seeing a change of fortune soon. Me and Brian (Lacey) are working hard to turn it round. “There are good signs but it isn’t going to happen overnight.

“We should be top half not bottom half but having won three trophies in three seasons means everyone wants to beat Bewdley and are not going to give it us easily. “Our priority for now is to get into that top half and then target the top 10.”