Football club vandalised for the EIGHTH time

Mansfield Boys FC, which use the privately-owned Berry Hill Park to play their home games, have been forced to shell out to repair damage caused on eight separate occasions.

They say the bill for repairs has now gone beyond the £6,000 mark.

At the beginning of December, yobs pulled down goalposts and kicked panels out of the dug out at the side of the pitch.

Most recently, yobs had somehow opened the locks which kept two goalposts together and prised them apart. They even used tools to unbolt the goals.

The nets were also left ripped and the playing surface was cut up and left looking ‘like a rugby pitch’, according to club director Paul Shelton.

The latest spate of vandalism happened during the recent stormy weather.

The club was scheduled to play a number of children’s matches on the pitch at the weekend, but because of the damage to the pitch, they had abandon the games midway through the first match.

Despite numerous calls to the police the vandals are persisting and forcing Paul 
Shelton to think about relocating.

The club only moved from Kirkby in April and said they had no trouble at their ground.

Mr Shelton said: “We are just going to have to ride it out until the end of the season and put up with what we can.

“I just don’t know what to expect every time I go there.

“It’s just soul destroying and doesn’t make sense why they would do this.

“It’s being blamed on children, but do children carry tool boxes to unbolt the goals?

“Whoever they are they are coming equipped, and we just don’t know what to do.”

A small fence was built around the pitch to keep dogs from fouling and they have considered building a larger steel fence , although it would cost upwards of £11,000.

With the park run by a trustee group, they are unable to seek financial help from Mansfield District Council.