FOOTBALL fans were left disappointed after a power cut left them without electricity on the night of England's big game against Macedonia.
Fire crews were called to Manchester Road, Baxenden, at 7.15pm on Wednesday after residents reported seeing smoke pouring out of a manhole cover in front of the Alma Inn.
The problem was identified by firefighters as a power cable and they stayed at the scene until engineers from United Utilities arrived.
Forty homes were affected on Manchester Road, Birch Terrace and Newton Drive and all were left without power until 3am Thursday.
A spokesman for United Utilities said: "We were contacted by customers at 4.30pm complaining of a problem with their supply but the power wasn't turned off until 7.15pm about the same time as the fire crews arrived.
"The fault was with a low voltage underground cable and it took some time for our engineers to locate exactly where the fault was and repair the problem. We would like to apologise to all of our customers for any inconvenience caused."
