VOLUNTEERS at a children’s football club have hit out at “thoughtless idiots” who broke into their ground and drove a 4x4 over seven pitches.

The pitches at Rossendale United Juniors’ home grounds at The Glen, in Stacksteads, were ruined by intruders who smashed through a gate before wreaking havoc by leaving deep tyre tracks on the turf.

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Groundsman Chris Shufflebottom said the club, which fields 16 youth teams each weekend, may have to play all fixtures away from home for the remainder of the season.

The damage, discovered by club chairman Derek Boyden last Thursday, comes just a month after similar vandalism at Belvedere and Calder Vale Sports Club, Reedley, and just two weeks after a motorbike tore up Pleasington Playing Fields, Blackburn.

Mr Shufflebottom, 63, said he had held discussions about how to repair the pitches with Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School, whose teams also use The Glen, off Rakehead Lane.

He said: “With the bad weather, no-one had been down for a few days and when Derek got there he saw that someone had forced through the gate and there were hundreds of yards of these tyre tracks.

“It’s terrible.

“The smaller nine versus nine pitch is the worst.

“They are completely unplayable.

“The marks are so deep they’ve got inches of water filling them up.

“It’s great for ducks but no good for our kids.

“We have more than 200 down every week and everyone here is a volunteer.

“We can’t afford this sort of nonsense.

“Derek was devastated when he discovered it.

“He’s the heart and soul of this club, and usually very mild-mannered, but he is furious about this.”

The club has sought advice from Ian Mather-Brewster, the Institute of Groundsmanship’s North-West regional adviser, about how to treat the surfaces.

Mr Shufflebottom’s wife Anne, the club’s secretary, said: “Severe disruption of fixtures for the junior teams is an absolute certainty.

“Hopefully with co-operation from the leagues and opposition, games can be arranged to be played away.

“Otherwise we would need to hire pitches at a significant cost.

“As always we are dependant on the weather and need a decent dry spell to give us a chance to carry out repairs.”

The incident has been reported to Lancashire police.