PRACTICAL joker David Reaney went potty when he returned from a football tour to find that his victims had finally taken their revenge. For as he neared his home in Fleming Close, Malpas, Newport, the 38-year-old was greeted by the sight of a toilet filled with plants stuck to the top of his chimney!

"I'd been to Newquay with the lads, on our annual FA Cup final weekend tour," he said. "We left at 8am on Friday and I got back around 4pm on Monday. I just walked in the door and thought 'what''s that on the roof?' "I've got some compost bags out the back and they'd even emptied one of those and put a plant in it. I've no idea where the plant in the toilet came from."

He added: "One of the boys is a roofer, so the finger has to point at him. A neighbour who saw them came up to me and said she thought they were doing some work for me. It was a new roof and they went and stuck that on it! I just hope we don't get any high winds."

The jokers almost didn't get their chance to show their toilet humour, as David was set to stay at home - until his teammates in the Merry Miller football squad kept in-cistern he should go! "Now I know why!" he laughed.

Hoping the prank was just a flash in the pan, he claimed he had been expecting something to happen.

"We've been going on the football tours for six years and we always play jokes on one another," he said.

"When we get off the bus, that's it, it's finished. On the last day, as we were about to leave, the lads went shopping and I emptied their bags so there was a huge clump on the floor and they had to pack all over again. And we used to turn over the bedrooms every night.

"I'm usually the joker. I've shaved a couple of the boys' eyebrows off before, so I was wondering when they were going to do something to me!" So he accepts being the loo-ser...this time!