GREG Lake insists Billericay Town will ‘come back stronger’ after seeing the New Lodge pitch vandalised following a break-in during the early hours of Saturday morning.

Two vehicles were driven onto the turf, leading to the playing surface being damaged and the National League South clash with Weymouth postponed.

And Lake, who is a member of the consortium which took over the club last month, admits the incident led to a range of emotions.

“You start off feeling great anger because you see that people have taken the time to break in through the gates and padlocks,” said Lake, who is in control of Town alongside David McCartney, Alex Morrissey and Nick Hutt.

“They then drove vehicles onto the pitch and did a fair amount of damage.

“I think they lost control and hit one of the advertising hoardings on the side of the pitch.

“It’s sad that people are wanting to go out of their way to do that sort of thing.”

But Lake confirmed other clubs and supporters have come forward offering their services to fix the damage caused.

“I’m proud because a lot of people came down to the club to watch the Rugby World Cup final and there are people rallying around, offering to help,” added Lake.

“Other clubs have offered to help our groundsman to get it right.

“We don’t know at this stage how much financial cost repairing the pitch will come to, but we know that it is fixable.

“I’m confident that we will be able to repair the damage ahead of the next home fixture against Wealdstone.”

CCTV footage has captured four individuals, in two vehicles, involved in the break-in.

And Billericay are leaving the investigation in the police’s hands having handed over the footage.

“The police are looking into it and they will have to make sure they have what they need,” confirmed Lake.

“You can see from the CCTV footage that there are two individuals in each of the two trucks.

“It all happened at roughly 2.30am, but it’s important to state that we will come back stronger from this.”

Although Billericay’s clash with Weymouth could not go ahead, player-manager Jamie O’Hara put his players through their paces in an open training session at the Billericay School.

“It was great that Jamie held an open training session,” admitted Lake.

“Some supporters went over to the Billericay School to see the players and that’s fantastic.”