A football club has turned to feathered friends to help fix a balding pitch, after a wiggly solution turned to tragedy for 50,000 worms.

Darlington FC, which has just spent £150,000 on improving the drainage system and reseeding the football pitch, has turned to plastic owls to deter predators from eating the seed.

The move comes after the club deployed 500lbs of worms to help irrigate its pitch last season - but they all drowned.

They were brought to the North-East by the same supplier who provided Manchester United with worms to help solve their pitch problems, but it seemed the task was too big for them in Darlington.

At least the twin 2ft tall owls, which have been placed at the side of the East Stand, have proved a success so far, with only one or two pigeons being spotted.

Club bosses hope that if the plastic birds do their job, then the problems of the Feethams pitch being continually waterlogged will be at an end.

Head groundsman Andrew Thompson said: "Some pigeons are still eating the seed, but we have only had two or three so it has not been a big problem."

Before the owls - nicknamed appropriately Twit and Twoo - the club had employed a bird scarer machine to scare off any pests, which emitted a high pitched sound every 45 seconds, but it was eventually scrapped.

Mr Thompson said: "We did try out a bird scarer, but we had complaints from local residents that it was too loud."

The new pitch at Feethams should be ready in time for the new season in August.