Volunteers at an amateur football club ihave been left heartbroken after quad bikers churned up their pitch, causing more than £5,000 worth of damage.

Organisers of Hindley Town FC say no-one can play on the adult-age pitch for the rest of the season – until April. Their match for this weekend is being moved to another venue.

It is the latest in a series of similar incidents involving off-road bikers on football pitches and green areas in the area, which have prompted Greater Manchester Police to launch ‘Operation Hurricane’ aimed at cracking down on the rogue bikers.

As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service three weeks ago,  police have seized 42 off-road machines with an estimated value of more than £200,000 in recent weeks.

The latest attack at Kildare Street in Hindley follows one at Dootsons Park, Leigh, where masked off-road bikers were terrorising the neighbourhood.

Secretary of Hindley Town FC Drew Fordham and treasurer Paul Roach joined Hindley councillors James Palmer and Paul Bray in assessing the damage.

“There will be no football on that pitch at least until April,” he said. “Grass doesn’t grow in the winter months, so we’ll have to wait. But it’s heartbreaking for our players and volunteer coaches.

The football club also has five, seven and nine-a-side football pitches with men and women’s teams playing all levels in the South Lancashire Men’s League, Greater Manchester Women’s League, Bolton, Bury and District Football League and Wigan Youth Football League.

Hindley has 186 players registered with the club.

Treasurer, welfare and safeguarding officer Paul Roach said: “The money to run this club comes only from parents and we as volunteers frequently put our hands in our own pockets to keep things going.

“Things like this are a real blow to us. We are looking at launching a GoFundMe appeal to raise the cash necessary to fix this.”

When asked about the possibility of fencing off the football pitches to keep the off-roaders away, Coun Blay said there were public rights of way across the pitches that would prevent it.

“You could put fencing up with narrow ‘kissing gates’ so only pedestrians could get through,” he said. “But then there would be the issue of disability access and prams.

“It’s an awful dilemma. The police are doing all they can, but it seems like there’s an epidemic of off-road biking in this area of Wigan at the moment.

“People think Wigan is an industrial town, but actually there are many areas of green space like this, that make controlling a problem like this so difficult.”