VANDALS will be prosecuted for plaguing a community football team, the club’s secretary has warned.

Maryhill FC has suffered a number of vandalism attacks in the past week and calls have been made to increase police patrols in the area to deter youths from trashing its grounds.

We told yesterday how the community club was forced to buy barbed wire to ward off louts. But it did not stop vandals breaking into the grounds on Monday night to spray-paint slogans at the Lochburn Gate stadium.

Now Bob Doris, the SNP candidate for Maryhill and Springburn, has called on local cops to patrol the area to put youths off from breaking into the grounds.

He said: “I have been in contact with the club to offer my support. I have also urged Police Scotland to step up patrols in the area and do all they can to identify the culprits.

“I know that it will be disheartening for the volunteers at Maryhill FC to see further damage at the club but I have no doubt the local community will rally around them.

“Maryhill FC have exciting plans to take the club forward and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

Jeff Holmes, the club secretary, said he wished to “work with” the louts but added if vandals were caught the club would pursue prosecutions, regardless of the culprits’ ages.

Police have not committed to upping patrols in the area but urged anyone with information on the vandal scourge.

A spokeswoman for the force said: “Officers are carrying out inquiries after a vandalism at Lochburn Gate was reported to police on Tuesday, April 6.

“Anyone who knows who is ­responsible should call 101.”