A COMMUNITY football club has been rocked again after vandals ruined its pitch for the second time in two years.

Volunteers at Stoneclough FC were horrified to find that someone had poured diesel over the club’s playing pitch last week, just days before the start of the new season.

The club, which plays in the West Lancashire League Division One, suffered a similar incident in 2014, when weedkiller was deliberately poured all over the playing surface.

Organisers said they have no idea why someone would be targeting the club or why anyone would have a vendetta against them.

Volunteer Peter Conroy said: “The sad thing is that a lot of time, effort and expense went into making sure everything looked great for the start of the season, then on Thursday we found that someone had poured diesel over the pitch during the night.

“They sprayed it all over the penalty area using something like a watering can, we just do not understand why anyone would want to damage a community club like ours — and obviously it is not the first time something like this has happened.”

Mr Conroy and other volunteers worked quickly after discovering the damage, covering the affected area in specialist sand so that the club could still host its first league fixture on Saturday.

And in spite of the vandalism, Stoneclough ran-out comfortable 4-1 winners against Milnthorpe Corinthians.

The club — based in Brook Street, Kearsley — now wants to make sure such damage doesn’t happen again and has asked local Cllr Liam Irving to look at the possibilities of getting a gate erected at the site, which could be locked up at night.

Cllr Irving said: “Having spoken with the council we can’t see a reason why this wouldn’t be possible, but funding is an issue, so I am looking at different fundraising ideas and activities so we can help this club out.

“It is a great community club and Pete and the other volunteers go out of their way to help others, we don’t know why they are being targeted like this but we will do what we can to put a stop to it.”

Stoneclough FC said it is in discussion with the police about the latest incident.