Oxford United's owners have put out an appeal for more sponsorship backing.

Co-owner Ian Lenagan said the fans' support had been "magnificent" with season ticket sales actually up on last year, but he wanted more backing from the local business community.

Speaking to supporters at the Fans' Forum at the Kassam Stadium on Thursday night, Lenagan said: "Season ticket sales are up by 50 on this time last year, which is pretty magnificent considering the disappointment you and I had at the end of last season.

"But we are disappointed that only 18 out of 30 hospitality boxes have been sold. We'd like to have at least another five sold."

He also put out a plea for more people and local businesses to help out the club by snapping up some of the match sponsorship and kit sponsorships still available. United are still looking for shirt sponsors.

Lenagan, who said the club were hoping to reduce their losses from £720,000 to around £430,000 this year, revealed that United's wage cap, now that they were in their second year in the Conference (Blue Square Premier), had dropped from £1.2m to £900,000.

One of the big improvements they had put in place was in the scouting network, with around ten different scouts operating across the county and much further afield to identify the best young talent.

Manager Jim Smith admitted that last year the team had been "probably too old" and when injuries occured, it caught up with them.

But they had brought in several exciting young players, including Joel Ledgister, Michael Corcoran, Phil Trainer, Luke Foster and Danny Rose and were very positiveabout the future.

Smith said: "I like Ledgister. He's a player Darren (Patterson) tipped us off about through his contacts at Southend, and I think they (Ebbsfleet United) made a mistake in letting him go.

"We probably had too many older players last year and have brought in some good young players.

"I think we've got the basis of a good side in the future and feel good about the potential here."

Questioned by OxVox's Jon Moore about what appeared to be a lack of cover in the wingback positions, Smith said it was impossible to have cover for every single position, but he believed Matt Day could fill in on either side.

And he added: "We want to look at Rose playing as a wingback. If anything happened to Alex Jeannin, I wouldn't be concerned about putting Rosey in there."

Smith also confirmed that central defenders Phil Gilchrist and Chris Willmott were making good progress in their recovery from knee injuries.

"With Willmott, we're looking at him playing a reserve game in a fortnight's time and Gilly started in full-time training this week," he added.

The U's boss said he was working on fixing up some reserve team friendlies in the coming weeks, and there was no shortage of possible opponents.

"Birmingham, Reading and Chelsea have all rung us asking if we want to play a reserve game," he said.