Disappointed 8th tier club says vandals have caused £6,000 worth of damage

Disappointed 8th tier club Stocksbridge Park Steels says vandals have caused £6,000 worth of damage at the Bracken Moor Lane site.

The goals and training pitches, which were in the process of being re-laid for the upcoming season, have been damaged, resulting in a repair bill of thousands of pounds.

They tweeted: “We are very disappointed that we have had some people break into our training and destroy these goals as well as our groundsman’s renovations. This has caused £6K worth of damage. If you can help identify the offender, please get in touch.”

A club spokesperson said to BBC Sport that break-ins and vandalism was a common occurrence at the ground and its training areas.

Volunteers trying to get rid of trespassers from the premises are met with verbal abuse. South Yorkshire Police are to contact the club regarding the incident.

“Unfortunately it seems to be the way these days,” they added.

“If they feel like breaking something, they do. We even had visitors last year on Christmas Day.”

The spokesperson added: “People just think it’s a playground. They go and sit in the stands smoking their spliffs, eating their Chinese meals and leaving rice everywhere.”

The club, who finished 15th with 40 points from 38 games and were four points above the drop in the Northern Premier League Division One East, are well known for helping launch the career of Premier League and FA Cup winner Jamie Vardy.

“Football clubs aren’t in a position now where they are rolling in money,” the spokesperson continued on tough time.

“Times are going to be difficult for next season. We have seen several clubs go bust. There are going to be a lot of them living like us, hand to mouth.”

Sadly a number of non league clubs have seen damage to their grounds, be it the goals, the stands, the pitch.

Clubs at this level of football are finding it hard enough at trying to survive, but then they have to find the money for repairs for these kind of situations. Many tend to set up donation pages to raise funds.

Below is just an example of what the club are having to deal with, all within the 2023/24 season…

VANDALISM

Earlier today at 3:15pm, 3 youths were seen by passers by climbing over the gate into mount wise stadium. With regret this was the damage done. If you know of anyone or have seen anyone acting suspiciously around the ground please message us before we use cctv. pic.twitter.com/d3QYOAEFnV

— Newquay AFC (@newquay_afc) April 17, 2024

evening to drink alcohol and take drugs with absolutely no concern for anyone who might be using the facilities at The Sports Ground. Will it ever end? 2/2

— Lymington Town FC (@lymingtontownfc) March 28, 2024

Disappointingly, during yesterdays game as we tried to give the local area a club to be proud of, certain individuals actions led to 3 of our volunteers cars being heavily damaged. 🤬

The cars belong to people who give up countless hours to coach our juniors & maintain our… pic.twitter.com/E5Y9H0FIsI

— Newcastle Blue Star FC (@nbsfc2018) March 24, 2024

𝘾𝙇𝙐𝘽 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏 | 🔵⭐️

We regret to inform that one of our junior pitches has sadly been vandalised over the weekend. This now means our juniors are unable to train & play until repaired.

As a community ran club, vandalism like this totally undermines all of the… pic.twitter.com/5fX3o4ZGPC

— Newcastle Blue Star FC (@nbsfc2018) December 4, 2023

Well done to the scumbags on motorbikes who have done this to the Top pitch meaning 3 youth games have had to be called off today. The club tries so hard with no budget to help in the local community & this is what we get in return. pic.twitter.com/aZggh8ySWi

— Sholing FC (@sholingfc) December 3, 2023

This is how Twitter users reacted after the disappointed 8th tier club Stocksbridge Park Steels says vandals have caused £6,000 worth of damage…

@kelly_owls: What’s even the point like what did it achieve? If they nick summat you can say they potentially gained financially from it but what does anyone at all achieve from this.

@pauljcooper1: So sorry to read about this. So much hard work goes into offering facilities like this to the local community.

@cdonfielding: Awful 😢

@bentownsend22: Don’t need them anyway with Rawson in side

@The5herriff: Where are the bottles from? Have they been recovered for potential DNA?

@shane_robshaw: Why? 🤯🤯

@StocksbridgeSun: Appalling.

@DavidHa8414096: I know this feeling very well, disgusting

@CarltonFans: Oh no! Tossers.

@SPS_Reserves: 🤬🤬🤬 scumbags !!

@chiefteeth01: Own up ya little scum bags

@nathanswfc04_2: honestly what is the point

@S4Blade: Some Little cunts about

Callum Montanna: Get Wez Emson-Brown to put you some cctv with notifications or a ptz with speakers that will keep them away!!!!

Richard Hayes: Too easy for youths to get into the ground, was loads playing on it Monday night and it’s regular occurrence

Graham Furness: Richard Hayes There is a locked fence around the training pitches which cost 50000 pounds ten years ago they have dug under it they have climbed over it and they have also knocked rivets out and come through it what else can we do ,they have all the answers if you approach them and wait until you leave and come back again.

Richard Swales: Graham Furness agree. If they want to get in they will do. CCTV might be an additional deterrent though. Maybe a community go fund me to help contribute towards the cost. Shouldn’t have to but what else can you do?

Graham Furness: Richard Swales we are thinking about that the biggest problem would be where to site the cameras to avoid vandalism to them ,we are pursuing all options.

Richard Swales: Richard Hayes did you report to the police?

Richard Hayes: Richard Swales nope they were playing football, why would I report them for playing football, how do I know if they were trespassing?. If I had seen them damaging the ground as a football club committee member I would have obviously reported it. In past I’ve cleared groups off them before setting off with running club but soon as your out of sight they return. Plus by time you phone police they would have gone. Not only that these days confronting youths is risky as these days they all seem to carry weapons. You only have to know recently about the stabbing locally to know it’s not worth risk. Said before at meetings more needs to be done such as electrifying fence or barbwire on top. Better still if they had goals on top pitch they would’ve need to climb in. Plus also suggest to club to get a shipping container to put the goals in. Be safer and secure in a locked container

Richard Swales: Richard Hayes if the gates were locked you would know if they were trespassing or not, pretty simple really. I wouldn’t recommend confronting anyone that’s why I asked if you’d logged with the police. Appreciate you might not get a response from the police but there’s definitely more of a chance if you ring them than if you don’t.

Richard Swales: I didn’t venture over to investigate if gate was locked or not could I tell from where I was where. My focus was on running not on a group of lads playing football. Simply posted to make club aware that a group was on there

Graham Clampinho Clamp: Richard Swales Police can’t actually do anything about trespassing it’s not a criminal offence. It’s a civil offence in the law of torts if a judge passes an order for a person/or person’s to be removed, then the police can enforce it. Just for info 😁.

Ron Morley: CCTV?

Sarah Cooper: Disgusting behaviour no respect

Tom Redman: All the hard work volunteers do and mindless idiots ruin it! Hope the community can firstly find the culprits in question and secondly raise funds for the club

Lee Wasden: Knobheads

Rita Nield: Absolute morons