A football club in Swindon has been frustrated to find their goal posts destroyed by youths.

Penhill United FC train three times a week at Seven Fields and leave their plastic goals in the field to ensure they can get on with training sessions straight away.

But Lee Bailey, the club chairman, noticed the goalposts were destroyed on Monday after children were reportedly swinging off them and smashing them.

He said he believes the incident happened on Sunday and some children who were playing with the posts on Monday told them who did it, but he does not want to report it to the police and will instead report it to the council for it to be dealt with internally.

Lee said: “It’s highly frustrating. The plastic goals are around £250 and now we’re looking at getting metal goals so kids can’t break them. They are heavier to pick up and lift, but they cost around £2,300, so we’re going to have to start a fundraiser. It’s frustrating because the club runs on minimal funding and it’s a hard pill to swallow.

“We use them pretty much everyday. It’s lucky the league matches aren’t on – if we had a game this week, we would have a goal to play in.

“The council knows we promote getting as many kids to play as possible and we don’t mind leaving them out for kids to play with.

"But we just can’t leave them out when they're getting damaged and it’s not the first time. The irony is we put them there for the kids to use but they're the ones smashing them." 

In a Facebook post, the club said: “The sad bit is we want the goals there for the kids to enjoy themselves and have a game of football.

“We have the goals there for the kids to enjoy themselves and have a game of football. We have had to lock them up because this isn’t the first time. If they just played football, we would leave them out.

“We would love nothing more than the local community having a game down the local park. Kids having fun for free, off the streets and into a safer environment. But they don’t.

"We caught them swinging from the crossbars. They’re plastic goals for under 12 children and older kids are swinging off them! No respect!”