For many of Jeanfield Swifts’ teams, playing on the open pitches means having to erect and take down goals before and after each game – a process that means that volunteers and the metalwork alike both take the strain.

After a number of years being manhandled on and off the pitches, the 11-a-side goals in particular were starting to show their age. The club needed to make immediate repairs or face a bill for hundreds if not thousands of pounds to replace the goals which are used each weekend.

Thankfully, two local companies were able to support the club’s ambitions for a strong set of goals that will last for the foreseeable future. W. A. McGarrie & Son Ltd, specialists in manufacturing and fitting metal staircases and stainless steel balustrading, provided their employees’ expertise to carry out repairs to the goals, with solid welds that will last for years to come. And since transporting full-size football goals to and from the welding shop requires more space than your average people carrier or SUV can provide, LADCO Advanced Engineering were only too pleased to let the club use a flatbed lorry to move the goals back to the Riverside Stadium base once the repairs had been effected.

Jeanfield Swifts Community Club treasurer, David Houston, explains, “Although we pay annual pitch fees for the council-owned pitches at the Riverside, we provide and maintain all of the goals, nets and pins and pegs ourselves. So keeping this equipment in good order is vital to allow Jeanfield Swifts’ teams of boys, girls, ladies and men to train and represent the club every weekend. In this instance, the repairs were now a matter of necessity, and we’re very grateful to McGarries and LADCO for having given us this assistance.”