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Bristol City’s notorious ‘ultra’ hooligan firm has denied responsibility for a vandalism attack on Bristol Rovers’ stadium.

And the City Service Firm, or CSF, have even speculated that Rovers fans could have sprayed CSF over their own stadium because they were ‘looking for sympathy’.

The statement, issued by the CSF on social media, followed condemnation of the graffiti attack from the vast majority of supporters of both Bristol City and Bristol Rovers, as well as from both clubs.

An area of the outside of the Memorial Stadium, and a significant number of the shutters on the kiosks inside the ground had red graffiti sprayed on, mocking Rovers’ financial position.

Rovers had received a warning last week from Companies House for not filing their accounts on time - a situation that was quickly resolved.

Much of the graffiti included the ‘CSF’ acronym, but the CSF itself said it had nothing to do with them.

“It is only right the CSF legal team put the record straight with the alleged involvement and name of the CSF being used in so-called criminal damage by the use of unauthorised street art graffiti,” the statement said.

“We believe the CSF will show a little remorse. We are now aware that this graffiti was NOT done the CSF, we received intelligence that this act was done by Rovers fans looking for sympathy or City youth,” it added.

“The CSF would like to hold out a hand of friendship to the Rovers GHS, we think the GHS stands for Gas Hit Squad, which is very amusing as they could not hit skin off a rice pudding.

“So as to show some remorse we will fly our flag at half mast at our headquarters for a day or two,” it added.

Bristol Live understands Bristol Rovers are reviewing CCTV footage of the attack this week but are yet to report the incident to the police.

Rovers warned their own fans against retaliating to the graffiti attack on their stadium, while Bristol City said they were 'appalled' at what had happened.

In a statement the club said: "We are aware of the posts on social media and will be looking into it over the coming days.

"Criminal damage of this nature is not acceptable and will be reported to the authorities if proven.

"We'd like to remind our supporters that Rovers are a family club and we would not tolerate any form of retaliation."

Bristol City said in their statement: "Bristol City Football Club are appalled to hear a minority of so-called City supporters have defaced the Memorial Stadium.

"We do not condone this kind of behaviour and it is disappointing to see the good name of the majority of Bristol City supporters being dragged down by such mindless acts of vandalism.

"We will assist Bristol Rovers and the police with any investigation that follows."