Football club heartbroken by vandals' fire damage to pitch
The incident took place at Dunipace FC overnight
Dunipace FC say they're heartbroken after vandals set fire to the pitch overnight, causing around six figures worth of damage.
Almost a third of the AstroTurf has been melted, and the team has had to postpone or move several of their upcoming fixtures to allow repairs to take place.
Some of the upcoming games set to be played at the club will now be hosted on other pitches, but a few have had to be cancelled.
Club chairman and Falkirk council leader, Paul Garner, is grateful for the help being offered by other clubs, saying: “We’ve been very lucky, Stenhousemuir has come in to help our senior team for today, and Linlithgow are coming in to help us on Tuesday night with fixtures that we need to play.”
It will be some times until the grounds are useable again, Paul added: “Going forward it’s going to be the length of time it takes to replace the pitch, which will be months, I’m sure.
“It’s a well-used facility, not just for the teams involved, but there’s a lot of community use on the pitch as well, so it’s devastating for many people, as they were saying to me this morning as they were arriving on the pitch.
“They were totally disgusted.”
Local MSP Michael Matheson said in a tweet: “A brilliant community club doing great work in the local area have had their pitch badly damaged by mindless vandalism.
"It's heart breaking for everyone at the club and the local community.”