THE company responsible for maintaining the Kassam Stadium playing surface have apologised for the “freak incident”

that held up Oxford United’s game against Northampton Town on Tuesday night.

Visiting goalkeeper Shwan Jalal called over referee Brendan Malone after a hole appeared in his six-yard box during the 1-1 draw.

The match was stopped while a member of the groundstaff repaired the problem area, which is where one of the rugby posts stand for London Welsh’s fixtures at the stadium.

Steven Moore, managing director of Surrey-based firm Sportsturf, said it was the first time he had known such an incident.

“I was not at the game, but had been contacted before the end of the match to be told what had happened,” he said.

“The rugby posts go in the ground on the six-yard line, but clearly you can’t just have a hole there.

“There is a bracket under the surface, that is replaced by a cut of turf.

“Somehow, this became dislodged – it’s either groundsman error, sheer bad luck or somebody has kicked it out. But it’s a freak incident.

“We still don’t know why, but I can only apologise.”

The surface at the Kassam Stadium has, once again, come in for major criticism this season.

With London Welsh playing Aviva Premiership rugby as well as United’s Sky Bet League Two matches, a large section of the pitch is badly cut up.

Moore, whose company have experience of dealing with similar groundshare situations at Vicarage Road (Watford FC and Saracens) and Adams Park (Wycombe Wanderers and London Wasps), was keen to point out that the state of the surface is not through a lack of hard work.

“The pitch at the Kassam Stadium is 14 years old and for the last three years has had both football and rugby played on it,” he said.

“We can have as many hours as we want on the pitch – it’s a myth that we are restricted when we can work on it.

“We certainly wouldn’t accept any contract to work on a surface if we were limited. We need to get on it when we want to and when we need to – and we do.”

It remains to be seen what level of renovation is undertaken during the summer.

U’s boss Michael Appleton believes finding a solution is key to improving the side’s mediocre home record, but acknowledged the cost could be problematic.

He said: “We’re not going to use it as an excuse because we’ve had to deal with it for the majority of the season.

“It can be a hell of a lot of money to replace turf or completely change a football pitch.

“Whether it’s achievable in terms of what they’re prepared to pay for it is another question.”