Come for the football or not at all — that is the message from Oxford United’s chairman as he praised the majority of fans who roared their team to a 2-0 victory over Luton Town.

Tuesday night’s game, which drew a bumper attendance of 10,613, saw a fevered atmosphere which, at one stage, boiled over into confrontation between some elements of the crowd in the stadium’s North Stand.

Chairman Kelvin Thomas last night said he could not comprehend the “minority of idiots” who threatened to spoil the occasion, but believed the club and police dealt well with the situation.

He said: “From the club’s perspective, the biggest thing was it showed we can handle a big game, and we can play in a big game.

“Following on from Northwich [the last game of last season which was marred by pitch invasions], we made a lot of changes to the way we do things and that improvement showed.

“It was an electric atmosphere, and the club has a responsibility to ensure the safety of the crowd and ensure the minority of idiots interested in fighting are kept apart.”

He paid tribute to the stewards for the way they had handled the situation, adding: “It’s difficult to comprehend that people come to football to have a fight.

“We work hard as a football club to be part of the community. We want people to come to the football club, but we are not interested in people who aren’t coming for the football.

“What frustrates me is we have women and young kids coming and there are people there that just want to fight. It’s not what we are about. It’s just difficult to comprehend.”

Police brought in re-inforcements during the match as some opposing fans threatened to reach home supporters in the North Stand after United took an early two-goal lead.

There were also a number of scuffles outside the ground before the game.

Oxford’s police commander Supt Andy Murray said: “Usually games at the Kassam are police-free, but we received intelligence that a small number of supporters were intent on causing trouble. I made a decision to deploy officers outside the ground before the match to prevent any trouble.

“During the game, tensions were building between the two sets of fans, so more officers were deployed inside the ground to support the stewards and keep the fans apart.

“Nobody was badly injured and the policing presence prevented further incidents after the game.” Police spokesman Claire Gourlay said one man was arrested on suspicion of assault outside the ground, but was released without charge after no complaint was made by the alleged victim.

Mr Thomas, who confirmed the club would have to pay part of the policing bill, added: “The majority of our fans were fantastic. There were more than 8,000 in there, and that pocket of conflict was probably 50 people.

“The overwhelming majority were Oxford fans who love the atmosphere, enjoyed the match and supported their football team.

  • Traffic outside the ground delayed kick-off by 15 minutes, and Mr Thomas saidconversations were ongoing with the county council and Oxford Science Park about how to improve the situation.