THE LIGHTS went out on Liam Dickinson’s attempts to get Southend United back to winning ways at Aldershot yesterday.

Dickinson fired home an early penalty to hand Blues a 1-0 half-time lead at the EBB Stadium.

But the game was then abandoned due to a floodlight failure.

“It was all a bit of a farce in the end and Aldershot will be more than pleased to see the game called off whereas we’re all quite frustrated,” said Dickinson.

“We couldn’t really have been in a better position to go on and win the game so it’s frustrating and I feel really sorry for the fans who have given up days with their families on Boxing Day to come and see the match.

“We appreciate them coming to see us but it’s a just a shame we weren’t given the opportunity to push on and get a win for them to celebrate.”

Southend would have fancied their chances of ending a six match winless streak as Aldershot were reduced to 10 men in the 39th minute.

Defender Darren Jones was dismissed for swinging an arm towards Dickinson.

And the striker felt it was the right decision.

“People may say I went down too easily but if you raise your arms you expect to get sent off,” said Dickinson.

“If it was the other way round I would expect to be shown a red card as well but I’m still confident we can come back here and win the next game we have against them.”

But Dickinson reluctantly admitted he would not be able to count his well taken penalty among his goal tally for the season.

“I’ll try and argue that because it came up on Sky Sports News it counts as a goal but I’m not very hopeful about anyone else agreeing with me,” he added.