THE vandalised Okehampton Argyle Football Club will be able to kick off their home fixture on Saturday after all ? thanks to a lot of good will and generosity from a caring community.

One of the damaged dugouts at the Simmons Park ground is completely repaired and club secretary Gordon Alexander said the other one will be ready by Saturday.

If they were out of use the pitch would not meet the standards required by the East Devon Cups Competition ? and the game would be cancelled.

?If you don?t play you get fined for not fulfilling a fixture. The league would have probably been a bit lenient because of what happened ? but the rule book says you will be fined,? said Gordon.

He said last week?s match against Newton was in a different league where dugouts were not essential. However a goal net and white lines were.

?We owe a big thank you to the shops that got stuff in. S J Sports provided the nets. If we did not have them we would not have been able to play,? said Gordon.

He said people in the club had brought equipment along to help out.

And the Bristol-based company that supplies the white liner for marking the pitch paid the extra courier charge to get it to the club within 24 hours. The town?s rugby club also offered to help with white liner.

?We have had a couple of people who have donated money to help cover some of the costs. That sort of thing helps you to pick yourself up and dust yourself down. It gives you heart to carry on,? he said.

?All the people at the club are volunteers ? no one is paid to do this. You try to help the town and when vandalism like this happens you feel you have been kicked in the teeth.

?Fortunately there are plenty of people that do care what happens in the town ? a lot more than the mindless idiots.?

The vandals hit the club on the weekend of January 25-26. Goal nets, a line marking machine, line marker, wheelbarrow and tools plus other items were taken from the football club shed and set on fire in the stands. In another attack the pitchside dugouts were badly damaged.