CLUBS will have to be flexible to avoid falling even further behind with fixtures, warns Karl Robinson.

Oxford United suffered their eighth postponement of the season when Saturday’s Sky Bet League One clash at Northampton Town was washed out.

Heavy rain in the area from Thursday night made the PTS Academy Stadium pitch unplayable, with referee Thomas Bramall calling the game off after an inspection at 10.30am.

United trained on Saturday instead, but the postponement adds to an already-worrying fixture backlog.

Read also: Oxford United looking to play League One game tomorrow

After Fulham’s Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur last week was rearranged at 48 hours’ notice, Robinson feels clubs at all levels need to be innovative.

“The strange thing is they asked for a pitch inspection at 10.30, when it wasn’t kicking off until 3pm,” the U’s head coach said.

“The way the game is right now, we have to be more creative than ever before.

“You could have taken our ground staff and pushed the kick-off back.

“It’s not like you’ve got a police issue or fans that are travelling.

“The pitch was unplayable, but these are all creative new things that we’ll have to get used to.

“The Fulham situation brought that to the forefront of our minds.”

No new date has been set for the Northampton trip, but United have now had six fixtures postponed this season – with home games against Crewe Alexandra and Doncaster Rovers called off twice.

Their season is due to end on May 8, but the U’s still have 26 league matches and at least one in the Papa John’s Trophy left.

United’s next game is the visit of Bristol Rovers on Saturday, but they are looking to bring forward either the home match against Wigan Athletic or the trip to Ipswich Town to tomorrow night.