KARL Robinson said he was jumping to his players' defence when he grabbed a pitch invader as the season ended in farcical scenes.

The Oxford United manager received a standing ovation for his intervention from the Blackburn Rovers fans who had stayed in their seats.

There were only a handful of seconds left when thousands of home supporters ran on to the pitch to celebrate their sides' automatic promotion.

But Robinson, whose side's 2-1 defeat was eventually confirmed when play restarted five minutes later, took exception to the handful of spectators who were goading his players.

The U's boss ended up grabbing one by the throat, before stewards bundled him off the pitch.

He said: "I shouldn’t do that, but when people attack my players I don’t take too kindly to it.

"That’s just the way it is, unfortunately.

"People need to understand, I worked at this club for a while and it’s a very special football club. Don’t let some idiots spoil it.

"The atmosphere was electric and some divvy gets the plaudits? That can’t be right."

He added: It was one or two (fans) had a hold of my players.

"We were going over to say thank you to our fans, so I don’t make any apologies (for that).

"I don’t care what’s going on, we’ve got a duty of care to our fans and they should respect our players.

"There was no needle in the game and they’re going up, so why should there be a problem?"

Despite the defeat, Robinson was upbeat about United's finish to the season.

He said: "We finish in a very positive frame of mind.

"Our only two defeats in the last few games have been to the sides in first and second and both were by a one-goal margin.

"I think it’s progress, so we have to move forward now.

"We’ll be in every day with the staff next week and we’ll be moving forward now."