Raiders smashed their way into the players' restaurant in the early hours of Monday, stealing a plasma television and defacing the walls of the manager's office with graffiti.

The break-in follows a similar one last week when the thieves took computer equipment containing Alan Irvine's detailed preparatory work on Saturday's opponents Reading.

Irvine shrugged off the loss of equipment as "just a nuisance," although the midweek attack meant additional work for him and his backroom staff.

But he confessed: "I think something has to be done (about security), it needs to be looked at.

"The first break-in was a little bit disappointing because we had computers stolen which had a lot of information on them to do with our preparations for the Reading game. So I had to start again.

"It wasn't top secret or anything, it wasn't stuff that anyone could make use of. It was just a nuisance more than anything."

Club officials believe the burglars got into the training ground through a hole in the perimeter fence.

It has not been revealed what was scrawled on the walls of the manager's office, although a member of staff admitted: "They made it very clear they were the same people who carried out the first burglary too."

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