Paulsgrove boss Wayne Grant ‘on the brink’ of walking away after latest spate of vandalism

Grant arrived at Marsden Road last Friday, with the intention of fitting a defibrillator to the clubhouse, only to find all 12 windows on the building had been smashed.

As a result, Hampshire Premier League side Grove were forced to call off their scheduled pre-season opener at the ground against Baffins Milton Rovers the following day.

It's the second time in the space of four months Paulsgrove have had to postpone a home fixture for non-footballing reasons: their meeting with Harvest in the L4 Teamwear Challenge Cup in April was scrapped after vandals set fire to one of the goalmouths.

Grant admitted his patience is now wearing thin and he called a managers meeting over the weekend to make his stance on potentially walking away known.

He claims vandalism is a regular occurrence at the ground, and is now unsure how much more he can take.

He said: 'Something so positive turned into something so negative because the reason I went up there was to have the defibrillator fitted.

‘They wanted to put it on the wall outside, but with the damage we have it was better to put it outside.

‘I’ve had a managers meeting this week and I’ve said I’m on the brink of walking away now.

‘It’s just too much trying to run two sides - we’re doing everything ourselves, we don’t get any help from the council full stop.

‘It’s just a sour taste all the time.

‘The thing is we’ve got Chaz Mitchell (youth chairman) and we’ve built the youth section. I feel sorry for them as well because he’s worked so hard to grow the youth as well.

'We’re having to call games off for vandalism rather than football reasons.

‘Now everyone is just saying ‘enough is enough’. It’s criminal, for non-football reasons - it’s just depressing.

‘You never know what you’re going to find when you go up there.'

Paulsgrove have long attempted to gain leasehold of their ground from Portsmouth City Council.

Grant believes being handed ownership of the current council site could help prevent future vandalism as they would put preventive security measures in place.

Moves are now being made to install CCTV to the clubhouse, but Grant is becoming more demoralised with each new problem.

'It’s just mind-numbing vandalism - it just doesn’t make any sense.

'Nobody is paid and it’s like a full-time job on top of a full-time job.

‘It’s got to the point where, rather than stressing about picking a team on a Friday, I’m stressing about what we’re going to find.

‘Everytime my phone goes off now and it’s someone from the club I’m thinking ‘what’s gone on now?’

Paulsgrove are due to host Wessex League Premier Division side Moneyfields on Saturday.