TOWN had to call off their Leeds Road match against Derby County – because their two remaining floodlight pylons were unsafe!

Two of the structures had already collapsed during a storm and further bad weather meant the other two were in a dangerous state.

Club secretary Tony Galvin confirmed the two remaining pylons would be dismantled as soon as the wind dropped enough for workmen to climb them.

Town had paid £23,347 for the new lighting, but the previous year’s accounts revealed they still owed £17,978 for them to a hire purchase company.

Winds of more than 70mph were battering the ground and a two-hour emergency board meeting was called to discuss whether the match against Derby could go ahead.

The meeting was held on Friday, February 16, with the match scheduled to go ahead the following day.

On arriving at Leeds Road, directors and officials watched anxiously as one of the pylons at the Canker Lane corner “rolled and twisted in an alarming manner.”

A firm of consulting engineers was called in and it was they who eventually advised the match should not go ahead.

Indeed, they were so worried about the Canker Lane pylon that they dared not go too near!

One of the deciding factors was also news from the Oakes Meteorological Station that further winds gusting to 78mph were expected.

The lights and the banks on which they were mounted weighed two tons.

It was reported that housewives living near the ground feared a pylon might fall onto their homes – especially with news that one of Bradford Park Avenue’s floodlights had also crashed down.

Mrs Emma Liversedge, 72, lived barely 10 yards from the Canker Lane turnstiles and could see corrugated sheeting had been blown out at the back of the East Terrace, which was newly-roofed at the time.

She said: “The wind has blown them out and if that pylon crashes, I’m afraid it’s going to cause a terrific mess.”

Next door, Mrs Edna Kimberlin and her 15-year-old daughter, Susan, said they were “really worried” about the possibility of a pylon falling on nearby houses. Borough Police were in the process of warning residents about the state of the pylons.