Shrewsbury A-A Port Vale
- Published
Shrewsbury Town's League Two home game with Port Vale was abandoned after 64 minutes due to a fire in the East Stand generator room at the Greenhous Meadow.
Promotion-chasing Town were leading 1-0 thanks to a well-taken 50th-minute strike from top scorer James Collins.
But 14 minutes later the lights went out and an announcement asked fans to leave the East Stand. After a 20-minute wait, the game was called off.
A point would have lifted Shrewsbury into the top two of League Two.
The home side twice wasted chances to take the lead before the break through Terry Gornell, who curled a low right-footer just wide, and Collins, whose shot was tipped round the post for a corner.
But the best chance came at the other end when Chris Neal made a brilliant save, diving to his right to keep out Jamie McCombe's header.
Neal then saved again from Louis Dodds' low left-foot shot at the start of the second half.
But Gornell's clever backheel then set up Collins to open the scoring with a right-foot drive.
What would have been Collins' 12th goal of the season was then wiped from the records when the fire broke out at the Meadow.
On a night when they could have gone second, Shrewsbury actually drop from third to fourth as a result of Crawley's victory at Bradford.
VIEWS FROM THE DRESSING ROOM
Shrewsbury Town striker Terry Gornell told BBC Radio Shropshire:
"The initial reaction when the lights went out was that you see it all the time and that they'd soon be back on. You're in the game and you're not worring about what's happening off the field.
"But, as soon as they started evacuating the stand, you knew there was slim chance of it carrying on.
"The main thing is nobody was hurt and it all went smoothly but we're in shock. We can't believe this has happened. It was one of our best performances of the season and we were playing some great football.
"We've just got put it to behind us, take the positives out of our performance and look forward to Saturday and try to take it out on Aldershot."