A JUNIOR football ground devastated by a vandal attack has received a £1,000 boost to replace lost equipment.

Managers of Carr Vikings Junior Football Club, based at the site of the former Northfield Special School, in Acomb, York, said they were delighted at the £1,000 hand-out from councillors Tracey Simpson-Laing and David Horton, which came out of the ward committee budget.

Meanwhile, Premier Soccer School, a Clifton Moor-based company that supplies football equipment and training, has also stepped forward and given the club ten new footballs, worth £200.

Vandals broke into the lock-up garage the club uses to store equipment, dragged out the club's lawnmower and set it on fire.

Most of the club's footballs were also stolen, and paint was poured all over the floor and outside the garage.

Alan Roughton, club secretary and under-12s coach, said: "This will be a massive boost and will go towards replacing the grass cutting machinery.

"The council has really helped us."

Coun Simpson-Laing said: "I am absolutely appalled at these sort of senseless acts of vandalism.

"Local sports clubs don't have much money and this sort of behavior makes life really difficult for them.

"Carr Vikings provide a really important activity for local children who just want to play football.

"It gives them something to do which they really enjoy and we want to see it continue."

Coun David Horton said: "Hopefully, this money will help to keep the club going and allow them to replace some of the equipment that was damaged.

"We decided that it was good use of the ward committee's money as we didn't want to see the club suffer because of the actions of some mindless idiots."

Karen Sawyer, manager of Premier Soccer School, said: "The vandalism is terrible. I don't know why people do things like that.

"We work with Carr Junior School and we have done for years now.

"As well as that, we did a football school at Carr Infant School during the summer. So, we're always interested in the children from that area.

"A lot of the children from Carr Vikings go to the junior school, so we wanted to help given our connections."