Margate boss Steve Watt feared for his players' safety at Oxford City on Saturday.

Watt was shocked by the state of the Oxford pitch and felt the National League South fixture should have been called off.

Gate, who lost the game 1-0, had Tarik Moore-Azille stretchered off and Michael Thalassitis sent off.

Watt said: "The pitch was one of the worst I’ve seen. It was a scrappy affair - there wasn’t a great deal of quality from either side, it was basically trying to get through the game without injury. That’s what I was more concerned about because of the pitch itself.

"Parts of the pitch had no grass and it was just sand. I don’t think the game should have been allowed to be played. If a pitch is in that state, I believe the league should take control of that and if it means the club’s got to play their games away, so be it.

"They were apologetic as a football club and I believe the pitch is getting dug up and they’re putting a 3G put down this week. Moving forward, I imagine it’ll be a fantastic place to go and play but in terms of Saturday itself, it really did spoil the game and unfortunately for us, we weren’t able to get anything from it."

Watt and his assistant Steve Brown will take charge of Margate in the Ryman League Premier Division next season after their relegation was confirmed earlier this month.

He said: "Coming to the end of the season, players’ contracts are running out so that must have been in the back of the players’ minds, playing on a pitch of that standard.

"It must be in your mind and we’ve lost Tarik, who’s possibly fractured his ankle, which isn’t great for him or us. I don’t know if the pitch was a factor in that or not but it was definitely a concern of mine before the game.

"I was definitely worried about my players’ well-being before the game kicked off."