YOUNG footballers are celebrating after a kind-hearted company replaced goalposts which had been stolen.

Sneak thieves stole the posts from Trowbridge Town Youth FC and the children were faced with a £500 bill to buy new ones.

Then Westbury Park Engineering stepped in to save the day.

Club chairman Andy Mackinder said: "It would have taken the proceeds from one of our major fundraising events to pay for the goalposts.

"You can imagine just how upset our players, some of them as young as seven, were."

Thieves made off with the four mini goalposts, which the club had just bought for their Woodmarsh ground, in the early hours of April 20.

Mr Mackinder said: "We have always wanted to equip both of our mini soccer pitches with removable goals, and we had completed the groundwork to receive the sockets in which the goals sit. It was only when we went to concrete the sockets into the ground that, search as hard as we might, we could not find our goals."

When Westbury Park Engineering heard about the club's misfortune it offered to provide a replacement set of goals free of charge.

James Brain, production manager at Westbury Park Engineering, said: "It's not fair that so many young players should have their enjoyment spoilt.

"We are only too aware just how much time, effort and money goes into providing local football and we were only too pleased to be able to help."

Mr Mackinder said: "This generosity has gone a long way to restore our faith in human nature."