The Royalists’ Stag Meadow ground was plunged into darkness – even the clubhouse lights and television power was cut at one point – leaving the club’s 400 plus crowd, their biggest of the season, wondering what on earth was going on.

Windsor and Crystal Palace fan Alan was taking his three-year-old daughter, Megan, to the toilet when the lights failed and he over heard match officials talking. He didn’t realise at the time the lights had gone.

He said: “I overheard them talking about maybe having to call the match off. I asked them why and asked them if they had called an electrician.

“Then I said jokingly that I would take a look for them. I had my van just outside of the ground but didn’t have a torch, so I had to use my van lights to see what the problem was.”

Alan, self-employed electrician for Drake Building Services, saw that the fuse had blown.

He added: “As luck would have it the club secretary, Steve Rowland, had a fuse that somebody had given him once in his fishing tackle box that he kept in his car.”

The lights finally came back on at 9.15pm having failed at 8.40pm, minutes before the two teams were due to return to the pitch for the second half.

Alan agreed that this was perhaps one of the more bizarre jobs he had encountered in his trade, but added: “I was watching Crystal Palace a couple of years ago when the same thing happened. That time I left it for the big boys.”

Thanks to Alan, Tuesday’s tie did finish, but in a 1-1 draw necessitating a replay.