POLICE were at the Kassam Stadium yesterday in the hunt for vandals who covered the ox statue with pink paint on Saturday night.

Oxford United chairman Kelvin Thomas said the club would look into cleaning the £25,000 statue this week.

Former U’s director Brendon Cross, whose firm STL Communications paid for the statue in 2008, said: “There is far too much mindless vandalism, and I hope it does not set a precedent for other idiots to do the same.”

He said he was surprised it hadn’t previously been attacked, adding: “I thought we might have had someone travelling up from Swindon and painting it red and white, so it could be worse.”