A children’s football club has been left with a £10,000 bill after vandals trashed parts of its home ground.

Mindless yobs have wreaked havoc at Bredhurst Juniors FC’s facilities at Central Park Stadium in Murston, near Sittingbourne , leaving staff and players devastated.

Treasurer Cheryl Stockey said the volunteer-led club had been targeted a number of times during lockdown and since, with the damage resulting in a bill running into five figures.

An outbuilding that kept the club’s goals and training equipment was ransacked. Windows were smashed, the contents trashed and locks to changing room doors were broken.

Outside, two 11-a-side pitches were churned up by bikes and fencing sabotaged. Obscene drawings and words were daubed on the walls and paint was poured onto the floor.

Mrs Stockey said: “They’ve just wrecked the place. They’ve smashed the roof tiles and everything.

“To continually do this is just de-moralising. We’re totally gutted. It makes you feel sad, it’s very upsetting.”

Gallery1

The club is home to more than 200 children, from ages five to 18, who hoped to start playing there again in September when the new season starts – but now this might not happen.

“It’s due to start the second week in September but, obviously, this might impact the start of that,” Mrs Stockey said.

The pandemic had already caused the club to cancel its annual summer tournament which usually earns £8-10,000, for the teams’ winter training.

“We haven’t got an endless pot of money, unfortunately,” Mrs Stockey said. “It’s the kids that suffer at the end of the day. Money that would have been going to them will have to be spent on doing all this stuff.”

An online funding page to help the club buy a CCTV system has so far raised more than £1,200.

To donate, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne