The motto of Lordswood Football Club is “No Battle, No Victory” which even though they haven’t kicked a football since the end of October sums up the club’s current position following an act of mindless vandalism at the club’s Martyn Grove home.

Club Secretary Steve Lewis has been talking to KSN about the mindless individuals who broke into the ground and caused thousands of pounds of damage.

“We’ve been working very hard at the ground to do what we can to improve the facilities when we’ve been allowed to, and then last weekend – on late Sunday we think – all the good work was undone,” an emotional Mr Lewis told us.

He went on, “Vandals trespassed onto the pitch and destroyed one of the goals – breaking the frame of the goal completely – before kicking in the wooden slats we’d put around the ground, an area around the first team pitch, along with the advertising boards.”

“They then destroyed some of the home dug out and removed or pulled off netting that separated the two pitches amongst other stupid things that they’ve been doing which is as far as I’m concerned is just mindless!”

“The cost we reckon could be around three thousand pounds with replacing the goals the biggest expense. We’ve been offered help from local businesses following the Chairman’s insistence that we go to press and through social media to let everyone know what had happened, and that has included contacting Tracey Crouch, our local MP, to see if she can give us any help, as well as reporting it this time to the Police.”

“They’ve been to the ground to check if there was any DNA stuff left behind or anything on CCTV to see if they can identify the individuals concerned.”

“It’s very difficult to keep them out as we’re not allowed to put any protection on top of the fences as barbed wire is frowned upon so we can’t protect the premises like any other business can.”

Mr Lewis, who has been Lordswood Club Secretary for more than thirty years, admitted his frustration – and his anger – at the wanton vandalism. “We rely on charitable donations from sponsors for the football section with the different sections at the club having to fund the facilities themselves. And then it gets wasted by these mindless individuals who think that they can just come onto your property and do what you like.”

“I’ve not seen anything as bad as this in my time with the club. Some people who we’ve told and mentioned this to have said to us that the young people are “bored” and “should be back at school” but I’m sorry, I don’t accept that.”

“We were all young once – and I was no saint! But I would never go to a football ground and do what they’ve done; I broke some rules but not to the extent of mindless vandalism – I don’t understand it, I really don’t!”

The club has set up a “Go Fund Me” web page to try and raise the money, and Steve told us, “that went past the seven-hundred-pound mark inside a day of setting up the page, and we’ve had a wonderful private donation from one of our sponsors – Mark Pickup at Lion Insurance of West Farleigh – outside of that!”

“We’ve also had offers from a number of supplying companies regarding fencing, netting, advertising boards… A local company that does all of our signage for us have offered to do what they can to replace the boards that have been damaged and hopefully we’ll be able to raise the amount of money that we need to put it right with.”

“We’ve had donations from within football – including John Pitts from Sittingbourne – and we’ve had a donation from Lordswood Cricket Club, which is amazing, and we can’t thank everyone enough…”

Lordswoods local representative in Medway Council is the Council leader Alan Jarrett and he too expressed his outrage at the events. When contacted by KSN, Cllr Jarrett said:

“I am truly appalled by this, and will do I can to assist in the repairs and replacement.”

If you would like to help, please go to the web page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/lordswood-fc-ground-repairs-following-vandalism

Pictures supplied by Lordswood Football Club.