Footballers in St Albans were left stunned after thieves broke into changing rooms during a match.

Precision FC’s manager Matt Day said players were shocked to find that phones and up to £450 had been stolen from their home ground in Toulmin Drive on Sunday morning, between 9.45am and noon.

He said: “Usually the steel gate at the front of the complex is locked but unfortunately this week it hadn’t been.

“After we’d finished playing and we made our way back to the changing rooms, we found that the door had been kicked it in, though I’d bought a padlock for it.

“They’d rummaged through our players’ clothes and though they only took stuff from three or four of them, there was a lot of money in there, around £450.

“It was a bit naïve to have that in the changing rooms but we had a league meeting the following day and had to pay the pitch fees so had the money available.”

Unfortunately there are no CCTV cameras on site so he said players are not “holding their breath” at finding the culprits.

Though he acknowledged taking care of its belongings is the club’s own responsibility, as players pay quite a lot of money he “would expect the facilities to be more suitable to protect (our) stuff.”

He added that a “valuable lesson has been learnt” and that players “won’t be leaving anything else in there in a hurry”.

A police spokesman told the Herts Advertiser: “The offender(s) entered the block of changing rooms, whilst a team was playing football, and forced open a locked internal door.

“A number of items were then stolen including a black iPhone 5, cash, an iPhone 6 and a Nokia Lumia.”

Anyone with information about the theft has been urged to contact police by calling 101, quoting crime reference F1/15/753, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.