Football club is left counting the cost after arson attack

A football club has been left to find the repair funds following an arson attack at the weekend arsonists torched a section of its ground at the weekend.

Thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused at the Harratts Nissan Stadium, the home of Pontefract Collieries FC, when a steel container at the ground was set alight after the lock was smashed off.

The container, a storage unit for equipment, was left badly charred and the equipment inside, destroyed.

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West Yorkshire Fire Service confirmed that the call came in at 10.19pm on Saturday night and two pumps from Castleford and Pontefract attended where they spent about an hour at the scene.

Damage estimated at £5,000 was done and a club spokesman said it was lucky that the fire did not take the clubhouse with it.

The container was next to the main stand

A Tweet put out by the club said: “The club are yet again left to pick up the pieces - £5,000 at least in damages that a club at our level cannot deal with.”

Dan Grace, from Pontefract Collieries FC, took to Facebook and said: “All the hard work by local people, promoting local causes, then knocked back by local idiots.”

A JustGiving page has since been set up in an effort to raise £5,000 to replace the badly damaged equipment, and so far more than £215 has been raised.

To donate, click onto their justgiving page here