Oxford United are to contact the Football Association and the Football League after accepting an FA charge following an incident in their recent League two match against Bristol Rovers at the Kassam Stadium.

United are claiming that the legislation is “too harsh.”

Both clubs were charged with ‘failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and/or refrained from provocative behaviour’.

It is understood the charge relates to an incident when players from both sides clashed following a late tackle on Stuart Campbell by United’s on-loan striker, Rob Hall, who was booked.

While Bristol Rovers accepted the charge last week, for which they were fined £1,000 by the FA, United did not reveal their decision until hours before yesterday’s 4pm deadline for an appeal. Chairman Kelvin Thomas confirmed that after a great deal of consultation and review of the video evidence the club had decided to accept the standard charge.

Thomas said: “We were surprised and disappointed to find ourselves charged over the incident in the first place and have considered our options very carefully.

“Unfortunately, due to the wording of the charge, and having spoken to a lot of clubs who have been similarly charged – some of whom have gone down the appeals process – we feel that it is in the best interests of the club to accept the standard charge at this point.

“We understand the tackle was not good, but felt that was dealt with at the time by the referee with the booking, and the matter probably should have stopped there.

“However, the assessor felt differently. We will be making representation to the FA and the Football League as we feel that the current legislation is too harsh for this type of matter.

“And what happened against Bristol Rovers should not really constitute failure to control our players or mass confrontation.”