THE lights went out on Cherries’ Carabao Cup run in a bizarre third-round contest at Burton Albion.

Oliver Sarkic put the League One side ahead in the first half, but it looked as though the game had been abandoned during the second half after players were forced off the pitch on three separate occasions when the floodlights lost power at Pirelli Stadium.

But when play resumed for a fourth time, the game was played to a finish, after 28 minutes of stoppage time, with League One Burton completing a shock, but thoroughly deserved 2-0 victory with Nathan Broadhead bagging the Brewers’ second.

Eddie Howe made wholesale changes from Friday night’s victory at Southampton. Only Dominic Solanke kept his spot in the XI as Lloyd Kelly came in for his Cherries debut while Simon Francis returned for the first time since a serious knee injury suffered on Boxing Day. Arnaut Danjuma was included in a matchday squad for the first time, named among the substitutes.

The opening 10 minutes passed with little incident as both sides saw shots deflected off target through Liam Boyce and Andrew Surman.

Mark Travers was the first goalkeeper to be tested when Ryan Edwards’s low shot was held, but that proved to be just a brief let-off as the Brewers got their noses in front on 15 minutes. A deep cross from the left by Reece Hutchinson caused the damage with Sarkic arriving at the back post to slam in from 10 yards.

With their tails up, Nigel Clough’s men quickly looked to add a second goal with Travers parrying over a long-range Broadhead strike.

Cherries were struggling to string any passes together during a poor, disjointed opening 20 minutes, forcing Howe into a formation change to Jordon Ibe moving out wide and Solanke going into the centre in a 4-3-3.

But that brought about no improvement with only two sliding Jack Simpson challenges keeping Burton at bay as they looked to double their tally.

The visitors finally tested goalkeeper Kieran O’Hara with four minutes left to play of the first half. Solanke slipped a perfectly weighted ball through for Fraser, who beat the offside trap and looked to skip around O’Hara. But the Irishman, on loan from Manchester United, recovered well to save and preserve his side’s lead going into the break.

Howe turned to his bench at half-time, introducing Harry Wilson in place of Gavin Kilkenny.

But just eight minutes later, all 22 players were back down the tunnel again after all the floodlights suddenly went out in the stadium.

The players briefly returned, only for the lights to dim again minutes later. The game resumed for a third time with referee John Busby appearing to inform the Cherries bench that if there was any repeat, the game would be abandoned.

And the power duly disappeared from all four corners of the ground again with the referee seemingly blowing his full-time whistle. However, after another delay, the lights came back on and the game carried on.

Howe introduced Callum Wilson and Danjuma from the bench, but it was the hosts who looked the likelier scorers with Travers getting down low to superbly tip away Broadhead’s effort.

With the clock continuing to tick on through all the delays, a minimum of 28 additional minutes were announced.

And eight minutes into that period, Burton doubled their lead. A low cross from the right by Sarkic was turned in at the back post by Broadhead, despite a touch from Travers on its way in.

The Irishman was soon called into action again to keep the contest alive with a point-blank range stop to thwart Sarkic.

Cherries could not create a chance of note until the 30th minute of added time when Simpson headed against the post, but the contest was long gone.

Cherries: Travers; Francis (C Wilson, 87), Mepham, Simpson, Kelly; L Cook, Surman; Kilkenny (H Wilson, h-t), Solanke (Danjuma, 87), R Fraser; Ibe.

Unused subs: Camp, Jordan, Dobre, Dennis (g/k).

Booked: Simpson, Ibe.

Burton: O’Hara; Akins, O’Toole, Nartey, Hutchinson; Wallace, Edwards, S Fraser (Sbarra, 90+30); Sarkic, Broadhead (Dyer, 90+23), Boyce.

Unused subs: Buxton, Anderson, Beardsley, Templeton, Livesey (g/k).

Booked: Nartey, Edwards.

Referee: John Busby

Attendance: 2,505