VANDALS broke through a barrier at a Torfaen sports ground and drove a vehicle on the grass ruining the football pitch playing surface.

Penylan Fields, Coed Eva is the home ground for a number of teams from the youth section of Cwmbran Town AFC.

The incident is believed to have occurred on Sunday night, after the discovery by club officials on Monday morning.

“It’s devastating but we won’t be beaten by these vandals,” said club chairman Gareth Griffiths.

“I just don’t know who would do this sort of thing as driving a car on a football pitch is a crazy thing to do.”

The facility is leased to the club from Torfaen Council and the terms of the agreement state that the club will have to pay for the repairs from their own pockets.

“We are having a committee meeting next week and we will review our course of action then,” he added.

“But we don’t know how much the repairs will cost at the moment.”

The damage was spotted by the coaches of the team’s under-12 B team and the damage will have a widespread effect on the club.

“We will have to move things around to allow our boys to play this weekend, but the pitch which has been damaged is used for our under six, seven and eight sides,” said Mr Griffiths.

“This will affect all our teams from the young ones to the seniors and veterans.”

Mr Griffiths added that there are two pitches in Coed Eva used by the club, and luckily only one of the two pitches is affected by this vandalism incident.

“These people who have done this just don’t think but I’m sure that they will have a link to the football club in some way,” he added.

“They will have a relative who is involved with the club and their actions affect them.”