A FIRE has damaged the social hall at Great Yarmouth Football Club.

The blaze - believed to have been started deliberately - broke out last night in the kitchen of the social club, which sits within Wellesley recreation ground on Sandown Road. Officials have said the suspected arson will not effect tonight's game when the Bloaters taken on Kirkley and Pakefield in a friendly match, and they hope to be able to use the club's bar.

Colin Jones, chairman of the club, said this afternoon that staff had not had a proper chance to fully asses the damage, as the fire-hit area was still roped off waiting for further police investigations.

'From the face of it the damage doesn't seem too bad. It hasn't spread to other areas,' he added. 'We've got our photographic exhibition (of club memorabilia) on and that's been undamaged by it, so we have been quite lucky.'

Mr Jones was called to the blaze soon after it broke out at around 10.45pm.

He said: 'It's not nice to receive a phone call late at night. You always wonder how bad (it's going to be), in this instance it's not too bad. Hopefully we'll just quickly fix up what's been damaged and continue as normal.'

Two fire crews from Great Yarmouth were called to the blaze and were at the scene until just after 11pm. Police were also called and are treating the fire as suspicious.