A community football club in Swindon has been “hit hard” after their goal posts were damaged for the second time this summer.

Penhill United FC has around 100 children of all ages on their books, training at Seven Fields three times a week and leaving their plastic goals behind fencing between sessions. 

Back in July, club chairman Lee Bailey noticed the goalposts were destroyed after children were reportedly swinging off them and smashing them, which he said was “highly frustrating.”

But on Sunday morning, Lee was setting up for the club’s first football match at the field and was heart-broken to see the goals had been vandalised for the second time in just a few weeks.

READ MORE: Swindon junior football club's goals damaged by youths

Lee explained: “I noticed something was not quite right. As I got closer, my heart sunk – not again. To make it worse, it was a 7 v 7 goal which we were about to play with.

“Children constantly try to get them out to play. On many occasions we have caught them and they are playing fine.

“Unfortunately there are always a few to ruin it for others and we have found our goals smashed and torn apart.”

“I sent a picture to my dad, Richard Bailey, the former chairman and now an ambassador for the club. He was soon out to help and we lifted the fence that was squashing our goal and we managed to pull the goal out and into the open. We set about putting the goal back together and luckily it was salvageable.”

Now Lee has launched a fundraiser to help pay for metal goal posts, but the club will need three pairs – one for each age group – costing £2,500 per pair.

He added: “We will be able to padlock the goals within our compound. They are also much heavier, meaning they cannot just be lifted over our fencing.

“Once we have our metal goals, we will be leaving our plastic goals on the field for the children to play with for free as and when they feel like it.

“We have just been kindly given some 9 v 9 training goals from an ex-Penhill player, Mark Griffiths, who is currently managing Purton Phoenix Girls FC.

“Anyone who can help, it would mean the world to the nine and 11 year old children who currently do not have a goal to play our matches in.”