PARK groundsman Nigel Ireland was forced to turn cowboy when a herd of horses invaded his football pitch.

Nigel, 20, was stunned to find more than a dozen ponies galloping across the King George V football fields in Accrington.

And the council groundsman was forced to round up the horses when local soccer teams started arriving to play their games.

The horses were herded out of the park and disappeared down Royds Avenue and into Hollins School playing fields. The herd was a mixture of horses and Shetland ponies. Nigel, of Spencer Street, Accrington, said: "The worst thing was after they had gone I had to go round the field with a shovel picking all the manure up.

"The footballers refused to go on the pitch until all the muck had been cleared away."

Nigel, still mystified about where the horses came from, said "The next day the horses came back again and we had to clear them off the field again."

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