DES Buckingham is optimistic that there is more to come from Oxford United in the final third after the U’s ended pre-season with a defeat.

Serie B side Palermo won 2-0 at Grenoble Road, as quickfire second half goals from Dario Saric and Roberto Insigne saw the Rosanero claim victory.

United’s attention will now turn firmly to their opening game of the Sky Bet Championship season at home to Norwich City a week today.

Wide players have been the key talking point for the U’s during the summer transfer window, especially with the departure of Josh Murphy, who left for Portsmouth on a free transfer after his contract expired.

Przemyslaw Placheta arrived in July, while Matt Phillips and Malcolm Ebiowei signed in recent days.

Speaking after the defeat to Palermo, Buckingham said: “They’re a team that’s been built to go back into Serie A. They’re a very good team, and a CFG [City Football Group] team, so very well looked after in that respect.

“It was a good test to follow up on what was a very good Southampton game on Wednesday.

“I thought we had two or three really good moments in the first half. Shemmy [Placheta] got down the wing and crossed it, and we should’ve scored from a cutback.

“There were a couple of other moments where if we would’ve controlled the ball a little bit better in transition moments, we’d have got through on goal, but we didn’t quite do that.

“I’m not concerned. We’ve spoken for a long time on making sure we’ve got players in the front third now, to finish off and get us where we need to.

“We’ve got Shemmy 45 minutes, we’ve got Malcolm in the building, Matty Phillips, who’s probably a week or two away, and Owen Dale, who will return to the training field this week.”