Fort William manager Ashley Hollyer hopes much-needed fundraising money for the club goes to good use.
Former Clach committee member Billy Corbett set up a gofundme page to raise money for repairs at Claggan Park, after another incident of vandalism at the ground.
Fort William have not played a home game this season – their only Highland League fixture was reversed to Brora Rangers’ Dudgeon Park due to ongoing drainage works at the Lochaber club’s home.
The club reported the incident on January 15 and since then it has raised more than £2,000 of a £3,000 target to be put towards repairs.
There has been a Go Fund Me Page set up to raise money to help us for repairing what has been damaged at Claggan Park due to the recent vandalism. https://t.co/P5YpaVMtL2
A massive thank you to William Corbett who is a supporter of @clachfc who has set this page up.
— Fort William FC (@FortWilliamFC) January 16, 2021
Hollyer said: “What Billy has done is amazing for the football club. He’s raised quite a bit of money. It was an unpleasant shock – from what I’m hearing there’s been problems down there in the past with vandalism, so it’s a shame that somebody seems to be out to undo the good work that has been done over the summer.
“It’s not nice but it’s great to see everyone pulling together and singing off the same hymn page. It’s not what they want in their community.
“It’s not easy when you’ve got situations like that to get through but life’s full of challenges. You just have to try pull together to overcome them.
“They’re hoping to have extra CCTV put up to make it more secure. Hopefully the money that’s been raised can be put to fantastic use and prevent it from it happening in future.”
Fort William were also targeted in similar incidents in March 2019, where the social club at Claggan Park was broken into, and July last year when seats were damaged at the ground.
As Claggan is a public park, the club cannot lock the gates in an effort to reduce vandalism.
Hollyer added: “It’s certainly an added pressure for them (the committee) to deal with situations that were really taken care of during lockdown the first time. The pitch got sorted out in the close season, now they’re having to go back and do twice the amount of work.
“You do feel for them but between us, we keep working hard and pulling together and we’ll get there in the end.”
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