Club safety officer Mick Warden has thanked fans for their patience during last night's 45-minute delay due to floodlight failure. The club are investigating why the lights went out four minutes and 37 seconds into the game against Southampton.

Warden told the club site: "We are obviously carrying out an investigation into the power failure and have electricians on site now looking at the cause.

"It will take a couple of days to get to the root of the problem, but our emergency procedures kicked into place immediately after the lights went out and worked very well.

"We were able to flick a switch to supply emergency lighting around the ground which made it safe for the spectators, which was our primary concern.

"The floodlights have to cool down first before they can be switched on again and that takes up to 20 minutes, although we did have a problem with one floodlight in particular [corner of the North Stand and Cobbold Stand], which was not working at full power and the referee showed some concern about the lighting in that corner.

"Our staff worked very well, carrying out the emergency procedures and we kept the supporters informed as much as we could. I would like to thank the fans for their patience while we worked to solve the problem."

Heavy rain at Portman Road on Saturday, which forced the U18 game with Spurs to be abandoned at half-time, is thought to be the cause of the problem.

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