BOSSES at a Glasgow football club say it is “heartbreaking” to see their ground targeted by lockdown flouting vandals for a fourth time.

Maryhill FC are having to install CCTV cameras after mindless thugs vandalised their Lochburn Park home twice just this week.

Club officials estimate hundreds of pounds worth of damage has been caused by the string of incidents in the last month, with debris strewn all over the pitch on Wednesday night before a fence was torn down on Thursday.

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It comes shortly after the community club appealed for help when glass was smashed on their pitch by vandals in April.

Club secretary Jeff Holmes says it has been devastating to see the damage, which comes at a time when Maryhill, like teams across the country, are having to tighten their belts due to football’s lockdown.

He said: “It breaks your heart when you are putting so much time into something and this keeps happening.

“We want to have a local bond with the local community and as a Maryhill boy myself that’s important.

“It’s probably more of a cost to people’s time but it is certainly hundreds of pounds. Then there’s the CCTV which is an extra expense again.

“We are not on the breadline and have done well with funding, but this is costing us a lot of money. Money we had earmarked for ­players’ expenses and training ­facilities.

“That’s money we are now eating into all the time and it’s so ­disheartening.

“It’s a massive sum for us. We can get 100 fans there on a good day watching us and that can be wiped out by this.”

Mr Holmes added: “They were on the park about three weeks ago and broke a lot of bottles.

“It’s annoying more than anything else, but there’s the whole safety element and if you have a game getting played you’ve got to be down on your hands and knees with a microscope to get every bit of glass clear.

“On Thursday night, they were back and pulled down a whole section of the fence and the president and his wife had to go up to fix it.”

The series of incidents come as Maryhill make the historic switch to the senior game by joining the newly formed West of Scotland Football League.

The club, formed in 1884, was on the verge of going out of existence last summer due to a shortage of funds and a lack of committee members.

But, since then, great strides have been in reaching out to the local community and the club is in a far stronger financial position.

Now, their club secretary is asking for locals to help them so they can still be around do their part for the area.

Mr Holmes said: “We have just applied to join this new league and things are looking up and everything has been going well apart from this.

“I would like to appeal to parents of these kids. What are your kids doing? I know they shouldn’t be going out but if they are they are just up to no good.

“If you think or suspect anything, then please stop them.

“This facility is for everybody and we wanted to try and get kids involved and play on the park, not destroy it.

“We don’t want to keep anyone out of this club.

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“We don’t want to draw attention to the club but it gets to the point where we want people to work with us and not against us.

“They are doing damage to their own community of something they could be a part of.

“We would like these kids to come and play with us and be the next generation of Maryhill ­players.”

Police Scotland say they have not received a report about the damage caused this week.