CHILDREN and parents have been left devastated after scrambler bike riders churned up their football pitches.

Two off-road bikers left numerous tyre tracks on the grass at New House Farm Playing Fields off Broderick Drive in Breightmet.

Pete Connor coaches FC Strikerz Tigers under-11s team that has an allocated pitch on the council-maintained land, and fears the ground will be unusable unless they can repair the damage.

He discovered the damage yesterday morning and said: “Every single pitch had got some sort of scarring across it. It’s just mindless vandalism.

“I can’t understand why they think it’s OK to go and tear up a kids’ pitch. They haven’t got a care for anyone. It’s bad enough we have to put up with the weather in the North West and we have enough games cancelled without having to put up with some lads having ‘fun’.”

Mr Connor, a director of a manufacturing company whose own son plays for the team, said a lack of 4G all-weather synthetic pitches in the area for youth football meant many clubs had no choice but use pitches rented from Bolton Council.

The pitch his team uses hosts two fixtures each weekend with a total of 22 children involved from both sides for each game.

The playing fields has eight pitches hosting multiple matches, and hundreds of youngsters and their parents could be affected by the vandalism.

Mr Connor said: “The council do the best they can and we know they have limited funds.

“At the moment the pitches are pretty boggy and you can only just about play football.

“It means we’ll need the parents to come down early on Saturday morning to help push down the divots.”

Mr Connor said the children look forward to playing matches and are always crestfallen when he has to explain fixtures have been called off for one reason or another.

He said: “It’s all really upsetting.

“I would like somebody to identify who the riders are and have them face hundreds of angry children and parents.” A council spokesman said: “We are looking at what we can do.”