OXFORD United may be based at their new training ground from next week after engineers finally arrived to turn on the water supply.

Thames Water arrived at the Horspath Road site yesterday and boss Karl Robinson said he hoped the club’s staff would be able to base themselves there from Monday.

Robinson said: “It’s great to see. The last seven days there has been a lot of progress. It’s just the little bits and bobs that need finishing off, but I think it’s tremendous for everyone at Oxford United to be associated with it.

“Hopefully we will be in here next week and then we have asked to train at the Kassam Stadium for seven days.

“If we can commute to the stadium, use the pitch and come back that would be ideal. Then once the pitches get up and running, hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.”

The players will also see the facility - part of the £4.9m Oxford Sports Park - for the first time today before tonight’s pre-season friendly against Leeds United.

United have been training at Abingdon School and have had to make changes to their pre-season arrangements while waiting for the watering system to be installed.

Residents living near the Horspath Road site said they felt the club’s pain after battling Thames Water over a leak for more than two months.

Oxford Mail:

The leak off Horspath Road

They said ‘gallons and gallons’ of water may have been lost due to the leak on a footpath off Horspath Road near the Oxford Tube depot.

Abigail Pine, who lives behind Oxford United’s new training ground, said: “The leak has been there for at least eight weeks now, that’s how long we have been battling with Thames Water over it.

“At first they said it was an issue over planning permission and having to dig up the road but now we just keep getting passed around different people when we phone them.”

The leak does not affect the Pines' house but the footpath forms part of their quickest route home near the Oxford Tube depot.

She said: “Thousands of gallons of water have been wasted - it’s no wonder the manager Karl and the team don’t have any water at their new training ground.”

Her mother has even phoned the club to make manager Karl Robinson aware of the problem as his team still remain unable to use the facility.

The water firm did tell the family it would fix the leak last night.

A Thames Water spokesman said: “We originally planned to connect the new sports complex to the water supply on July 17, but as the job needed temporary traffic lights the council asked us to delay it until the end of the month. However, after speaking to the site’s owners and the council we brought the work forward, and the site is now connected.”

“The leak on Horspath Road is completely unrelated. It was first reported last month but as wasn’t affecting water supplies and was manageable, we prioritises other more severe as we worked hard to conserve as much water as possible during the heatwave. As it has now deteriorated it’s a high priority and we expect to have it repaired by tomorrow. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused.”