Investment made into the playing surface at the Kassam Stadium last year means there are no concerns about tomorrow’s game against Portsmouth going ahead.

The county has been hit hard by flooding in the last fortnight and Oxford United have had away games postponed by waterlogged pitches at Charlton (twice) and Newport in the last ten days.

The Kassam pitch struggled at times last winter, but there are no such worries this time around and it was in good condition yesterday.

United spent heavily in the summer to improve the quality of the surface, which included work done to upgrade the drainage.

Chris Williams, communications manager at United, said: “There was a lot of rain early in the week, but the club invested more than £50,000 on the pitch and some of that was on the drainage.”

Portsmouth have got fewer than 200 tickets remaining for tomorrow’s clash, having sold more than 2,100.

They are today expecting to sell the remainder of their 2,300 allocation, which would be their biggest away following of the season.