POLICE yesterday appealed for eight Oxford United fans to hand themselves in as they get closer to making arrests over the pitch invasion in the final game of the season at the Kassam Stadium.

About 20 people who ran on to the pitch during United’s 2-1 defeat against Northwich Victoria on April 26 have been identified by police after sifting through CCTV footage, photographs and YouTube videos.

But yesterday, officers released the images, which are all shown on the front page of today's Oxford Mail and in a picture gallery on oxfordmail.co.uk, of eight more people they are still trying to find, although they stressed they would concentrate on trouble-makers and those with a history of football-related disorder rather than supporters who got carried away after James Constable’s equaliser.

Sgt Alan Coffey said: “We're still gathering evidence, although this is at an advanced stage and a number of people have been identified.

“That has come through various sources such as police ID and members of the public ringing in. Some of these are Oxford fans who were against what happened on the day.

“Some of those identified have been under football banning orders before and they know the risk which is run by going on the pitch.

“We realise some of these are genuine fans who got caught up in the emotion of the occasion and the importance of the result, but crucially some fans entered the field of play and obstructed and delayed the match.”

He added: “We don’t want to criminalise genuine fans. We are trying to be proportionate as to how these fans are dealt with.

“Some people have come forward and shown genuine remorse. They have presented themselves to police andwe look on that favourably.

“We want these eight people to make contact with police. If they are identified by other means it may mean an arrest at a time and place that is inconvenient to them.”

The police, club and Crown Prosecution Service are working together.

CPS football prosecutor Caroline Hitchcock said: “Once all the evidence is available, arrests will follow and the decision will then be made as to the appropriate way forward.

“There is ongoing co-operation with the club as to any action or penalty the club may put on individuals.”

Oxford United secretary Mick Brown said: “I think the majority of people who were at the match saw it as something that shouldn’t have happened and the response of the crowd sent that message out aptly on the day.

“We’ve got a whole raft of things we could do, but we don’t want to predict the outcomes. We don’t want to go banning people willy nilly.”

Mark Sennett, of supporters’ trust OxVox, said: “At the time it really killed the momentum of the game and unfortunately really didn’t help us on the pitch. We understand people get caught up in the moment but we urge all supporters to stay off the pitch and we support the club in whatever they do to punish these people.”

The appeal came as the FA handed the U’s a £500 fine, suspended for two years, for failing to control their players and officials at the game.

The club said it accepted “both responsibility in this matter and the punishment received”.

Anyone with information should call Sgt Coffey on 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

Pictures of the people can be viewed by clicking the related link below.