Give generously: vandal-hit Wigan football club launches funding appeal

St Wilfrid’s FC hopes to raise £2,000 to replace or restore smashed dug-outs and shower block doors after yobs struck last Friday night (April 19).

Manager Phil Ramsdale admits he broke down in tears after arriveing at the Convent Ground in Standish the next morning to discover that specially-made shelters had been shattered, parking bollards uprooted and changing facillities attacked.

He spent a long time tidying up – including picking up countless shards of plastic deliberately thrown all over the playing area in the hope of injuring players – so that Standish St Wlifrid’s reserves’ home game could go ahead as scheduled.

He knew who was responsible too, saying: “There are youths who congregate at the ground on evenings and often they make a mess, getting drunk and throwing bottles everywhere.

"It is almost certain this damage took place between 8pm and midnight on on Friday. I blame the parents. They don’t know where their kids are and what they are doing.

"It’s absolutely soul-destroying. This is a good club which is doing well and it’s a lovely setting off Hartington Drive. We don’t get any money from the council or the lottery. We are entirely self-funded and whenever we get money we plough it back into the club.

"The dugouts are reconditioned bike shelters I got from a demolition site in Manchester. They were in perfect condition. Now several of the plastic panels have been kicked out. Bits of plastic from them were thrown all over the pitch. I am 100 per cent sure that was deliberate too. I had to go round picking all the pieces up so none of the players was injured.

"There is no point replacing the panels with more plastic. We will have to look at sheet metal but it all costs the club. Buying a new dugout: well, they’re £4,000 to £5,000 each.

"The kicked-in shower block doors will cost another £1,000.

"It is totally devastating. When I saw the mess this morning, I just cried. I have been inconsolable all day.”

But now a GoFundMe page has been raised, attracting several hundred pounds already.

Phil said: “It's nice to know there are some lovely people in the world.”