UNITED fans reacted with disgust last night after discovering the club could be deducted 11 points for fielding an ineligible player.

Some fans are calling for the resignation of club secretary Mick Brown, the man responsible for the registration of players at the beginning of each new season.

About 40 disgruntled fans have signed up to a Facebook group called ‘Mick Brown out of OUFC - now’.

The U’s have been charged with failing to correctly register midfielder Eddie Hutchinson, 26.

The club claims to have sent the relevant paperwork to the Football Conference last August, but admits it failed to check whether it had been received.

In November, it emerged that the player had been playing illegally.

Club chairman Kelvin Thomas is due to appear before the Conference in Birmingham today to fight the charge, which comes just weeks into new manager Chris Wilder’s reign.

The club are currently 11th in the league, but they would end up fighting relegation if they lost 11 points – the amount they won with Hutchinson on the pitch before the Conference picked up on the error.

Season ticket holder Andy Duffy, 40, from Botley, took a more sympathetic stance than many critical fans.

He said: “These days clubs in the lower leagues are getting deducted points willy-nilly – it’s ridiculous.

“Everybody makes mistakes and it’s not as though we were cheating.”

Season ticket holder James Wall, 24, from Bicester, dismissed calls for Mr Brown’s resignation as “stupid”, although he said he thought a club of Oxford United’s experience should know better than to fail to register a player.

He added: “We’ve had a really miserable season, but we are starting to play some decent football and we are only nine points below the play-offs. It would be really, really sad if we were deducted points. I’d be gutted.”

Mr Thomas said the club would fight the Conference tooth and nail over the debacle “in a professional and detailed manner”.

He said: “I will keep fans informed as quickly as possible when more information is available. I cannot comment any further until the hearing is over.”