TOTTINGTON United Football Club has been established in the village for more years than I care to remember.

We have had players on our books whose sons and grandsons are now playing for us. Rounders teams use our pitches during the summer and St Anne's Church uses it for sports days.

We have had our ups and downs, like any other club, but this season we thought we had turned the corner. We had not, however, taken into account the poor, bored youngsters of Tottington who wander about the village at all hours with nothing to do.

Just before Christmas, our changing rooms were broken into on several occasions. No real damage was done; it was probably being used for a convenient place to meet and to do whatever these misguided, bored youngsters do.

However, it was an embarrassment for us to arrive at the ground, with visiting teams travelling from as far away as Barrow, to find the doors hanging off their hinges and the toilets flooded.

This past couple of weeks things went a step further. We had the gates rammed and a car set on fire in the car park. Parts of the football pitch were dug up, and one changing room was completely wrecked and is not fit for further use.

We have had equipment, corner flags and furniture thrown outside or stolen.

The second changing room is like a bomb-site and then we found that it was being used as a sleep-over place by bored youngsters.

I would ask parents: did your young teenage son arrive home early on Sunday, March 17, from their night out on Saturday? They were caught at 7.15am, fast asleep in the changing rooms. Beer bottles were strewn around the floor. They had even lit a fire on a table.

If it was your son, ask him to take you down to St Anne's field.

Ask him to explain to you why they have done this to a football club which is only trying to bring enjoyment to the community of Tottington. Ask him if this is what it takes to make a bored, misguided youngster happy. And finally, ask yourself why you did not know where your son was sleeping on Saturday evening, and what they were doing.

Tottington United are now proposing to build a new changing room at St Anne's, which we hope will be in place for next season. Every penny raised was to be used for this project, but now we find ourselves having to use it to repair such unnecessary damage.

Come on parents, it is up to you to help sort this out.

GEOFF LEACH,

chairman,

Tottington United FC.