STAFF at Dorchester Football Club are counting the cost after raiders broke into the stadium, damaged property and made off with a quantity of alcohol and cigarettes.

General manager Keith Kellaway says it is the first such theft in the Avenue Stadium's 11-year history.

And in a separate incident, musical instruments worth more than £2,000 were taken from Harmony Music in Trinity Street, Dorchester, after a window was smashed with a concrete block.

Thieves broke into Dorchester Town FC's base in Weymouth Avenue between Sunday afternoon and 8.30am yesterday.

They forced open a series of four doors to get into the lounge bar at the stadium before making off with cases of beer, bottles of spirits and cigarettes forced out of a machine.

Mr Kellaway said: "Four doors have been jemmied open so they could get to where our stores are.

"That must have been what they were after as none of the equipment has been touched.

"At the moment, we have no idea of the cost of what was stolen and the damage. We're still working it out ourselves. But I would imagine that the most expensive part would be repairing all this damage.

"There wasn't a fantastic amount of stock stolen because we don't keep much here, but the doors have been seriously wrecked.

"However, it's still business as usual. We have a function here tonight and one tomorrow and they won't be affected."

Meanwhile, the smash-and-grab raid at Harmony Music happened between 9.30pm and 10.30pm on Sunday.

A Yanagisawa tenor saxophone worth £1,750 and a flute worth £300 were taken, just days after a £850 soprano saxophone was stolen by a shoplifter.

Proprietor Paul Barwick said: "It's not been a good week. I'm sure Dorchester is suffering from not having CCTV, while Weymouth and Bridport do.

"I am very much in favour of CCTV. It does have its limitations, but at least it puts people in the vicinity.

"It's not a very nice situation for me, but those who will really suffer are the community. I try to help out and put something back into the community, do things like Christmas meals for Age Concern, but this will set me back.

"These people are taking food from their own grannies."