'I was devastated to be honest. A lot of time and hard work has gone into building up the club'

Gardai are investigating after a vehicle smashed through a Trim soccer club's grounds on Friday night, wrecking sponsors' signage with only a fence post preventing the offender from causing further damage to the pitch.

The shocking incident happened at Trim Town FC grounds which is also home to the Trim Town Academy on the Longwood Road where UEFA qualified coaching is made available to up to 100 boys and girls.

“We are absolutely shocked and saddened that somebody has caused the destruction they have to our playing facility. A club that has been setup to ensure no child in locality of Trim and surrounding areas goes without access to football, has been attacked in such cruel fashion,” Trim Town Academy said in a statement.

“Some coward and vandal felt the need to drive through the gates, intent on causing harm and destruction. We rely on the local businesses of Trim to help us improve our playing facilities, through their generous sponsorship we have improved the Longwood road to no end. Now those sponsors have had their signs destroyed.”

Underage secretary, Terry Costello spoke of his shock at seeing the damage and how disheartening it was when so many volunteers have put so much effort into building the club back up in recent years.

“I was devastated to be honest. A lot of time and hard work has gone into building up the club. It is all totally voluntary and it was through raising sponsorship that we were able to do all we did.

“We don't have an endless cash cow, every time we need something we have to look for sponsorship. I was gutted. It nearly brought a tear to my eye. This is only our second year.”

Terry explained that Trim Town FC is a long time established but when Covid hit, it closed for a year or two. Membership fell off and Terry said there was about three feet of grass on the pitch and the fences were falling down.

Efforts began to get the club back up and running and they also set up a juvenile section for the first time with the launch of Trim Town Academy.

Terry told how their chairman, Paul Mulligan approached Keith Peppard who is a UEFA licenced coach to see if he was interested in coming on board to set up an academy for younger children which came to fruition after a lot of hard work last year.

They also raised sponsorship to improve their grounds and put in a new car park and Terry said local businesses have been hugely supportive.

“I haven't been out there myself since that morning. It is very disheartening, we are putting our hearts and souls into this. We aren't established 10-15 years, this is only our second year.”

Materials have been ordered to fix the fence and volunteers themselves should be able to do most of the work but some of the sponsor's signage has been damaged and will have to be replaced.

However, Terry said thankfully those responsible did not manage to get out onto the pitch. “We only have one pitch, if they had got on that... we couldn't afford to lease a pitch to train or play on. We can't afford for anything to happen to that pitch.”

The incident has been reported to Trim Gardai who are investigating. The club is also appealing for anyone with information or any witnesses to contact Trim Garda station.