OXFORD United’s attempt to pull clear of the relegation battle in Sky Bet League One this weekend have been thwarted by a frozen pitch.

With temperatures plummeting well below the limits for the frost covers at the Kassam Stadium on Wednesday night, an early inspection was held yesterday afternoon.

And with the freezing weather forecast to continue until Sunday, a local official had little hesitation in calling the game off.

While the timing will have been welcomed by opponents Fleetwood Town, who were due to head south this lunchtime, it means a missed opportunity for United.

They must now watch and see how many of the sides below them in the table can take advantage tomorrow.

It is also an irritation for caretaker boss Derek Fazackerley, who was looking to build on the goalless draw at Northampton Town last weekend.

He said: “You want some sort of continuity.

“Players train all week and look forward to the games at the weekend.

“If it doesn’t happen for whatever reason then it does interrupt things a little bit.

“On the back of a decent result at Northampton we would have liked to think we had a home fixture we could look forward to.”

United had been unaffected by the weather until yesterday – training as normal on Monday and Tuesday before the players had Wednesday off.

With the training pitch at Roman Way frozen, they were hoping to train on the 3G surface at Court Place Farm yesterday, but conditions were too bad even for the artificial surface to be used.

They visited the David Lloyd centre instead and will train at Oxford Academy’s indoor dome today.

Fazackerley said: “It’s not like we haven’t got other facilities.

“If we didn’t have the goodwill of those people, it would be an awful lot harder.”