CHAOS caused by travellers has made life a misery for a South-ampton football club.

The British Transport Comm-ission Football Club has had its Stoneham Lane pitch used as a toilet, vandalised and littered with broken glass.

Goal nets have been torn down and a motorbike has torn up the turf along parts of the field.

Children were last week terrified when a group of the un-

welcome neighbours stormed a football game and chased the players around the pitch at Eastleigh.

Now the youngsters have been forced to practice at nearby Riverside Park, which has no goalposts.

Meanwhile the club is losing hundreds of pounds in revenue every week because the clubhouse bar is empty.

Club chairman Steve Erskin said: "Members are down and depressed about it. If the travellers just kept themselves to themselves it would be okay."

He said the troubles had made it nearly impossible to organise important events.

A prize-giving ceremony to honour the best players has been cancelled indefinitely.

And next week the club is hosting an important annual match with a French team.

Team manager Pat Ramsey said: "The game will probably go ahead but it'll be tense. We have a fun day afterwards where all the kids play sports and sometimes the managers of the English and French teams play.

"But it's likely to be a lot shorter this year."

A spokeswoman for Hamp-shire County Council said nothing could be done until a court date had been set.

She said: "We are not here to police the travellers unfortunately."