A Sunday League football team has been left with nowhere to play after travellers invaded their new pitch.

Youngsters and their parents had spent the summer preparing the pitch at Coleshill Town FC in Warwickshire and believed it was among the best in their league.

But they were left furious after 15 caravans, trailers and trucks pulled on to their prized new ground at Lea Marston on Sunday night - after the under-15s squad had won their third consecutive game of the season.

The club fears it may need a court order and bailiffs to move the travellers and under-15s manager Alan Coningsby said: "We are really worried about the state the pitch will be in because of the travellers moving in to it.

"We have spent a lot of time doing up the pitch and it was perfect. It is one of the better grounds in the league now.

"All of the parents got involved and everyone helped to clear it up.

"Now we don't know if we can play on Sunday and we are only three weeks into the season. We could have nowhere to play at all."

The club has been established for 100 years and its teams play in the Central Warwickshire League. It has under-14s and under-15s sides who train at the pitch and are due to play two matches at the ground, near the BMW engine plant at Hams Hall, on Sunday.

Coleshill moved there after being forced to leave its old pitch in Minworth.

Club officials found a new ground, which was overgrown. Team members, managers and parents rallied round to get a pitch ready.

A spokesman for electricity company Eon, which owns the land, said: "We hope they are going to move but if they do not we will start proceedings to get bailiffs involved."