BRISTOL City were today set to strengthen their injury-hit attack by completing the double signing of Brett Pitman and Jon Stead for a combined fee of around £1 million.

Pitman has already agreed the terms of his move from League One newcomers Bournemouth in a deal thought to be worth £800,000 and will undergo a medical examination in Bristol this morning.

Stead, pictured below, is also due at Ashton Gate for talks to finalise his long-awaited switch from Championship rivals Ipswich Town.

While City have been pursuing 27-year-old Stead for more than a month, they only declared their interest in Pitman, 22, when his proposed move to Blackpool broke down last Thursday.

"I've had a chat with the lad and I don't see there being any issues," said City manager Millen, who met with the Jersey-born striker yesterday.

Pitman scored 62 goals in 197 appearances for the Cherries, including a hat-trick in 16 minutes last week against a Peterborough side managed by former City boss Gary Johnson.

Millen said: "It is obvious what Brett brings to our squad, because he is a natural goalscorer. Everyone I've spoken to about him says the same thing.

"The more players like that you have in your squad, the better you are going to be. You need people who can score goals.

"There were other Championship clubs trying to sign him and, if he comes off for us, we will be all the stronger for it. Brett is an up-and-coming goalscorer, one we can work with and improve."

Of Stead, Millen said: "There is another transfer that has been agreed, one that has been going on for a few weeks now.

"Our interest in Jon Stead has been well-documented in the local press, but there have been reasons why the deal has not gone through sooner.

"We've been waiting in a queue caused by the knock-on effect of transfers. Roy Keane is still waiting to bring in strikers at Ipswich and he needed to keep Jon Stead after Connor Wickham was injured and Jon Walters joined Stoke.

"It's a case of one club signs someone, another club then signs someone else and we're kept waiting further down the line."

Ipswich accepted a bid of around £200,000 for Stead in July, but the player was unable to agree personal terms and held talks with Blackpool instead.

Those came to nothing and the 27-year-old striker started the campaign in Town's first team. But he does not feature in Keane's long-term plans and the former Blackburn forward jumped at the chance to move West when City renewed their interest last week.

Millen said: "The deal was never dead, it was just delayed. Because he is a good player, there were a lot of other clubs interested and it was an on-going situation.

"Ipswich want to bring in other players and Jon is desperate to get settled and know where his future lies. Hopefully, he will be with us on Monday."

Stead has a proven track record in the Championship and Millen said: "We've done our homework on him and we think he will be a good personality to have in the changing room, which is vital.

"Whereas Brett Pitman is a young and improving player, Jon Stead has that experience we need. He is already the finished article."

Given City's performance in Saturday's 3-3 draw against Championship rivals Barnsley at Ashton Gate, Millen may also be in the market for a defender before next week's transfer deadline.

"Individually and collectively as a back four and a team, we were not good enough," said Millen, who twice saw his side come from behind to salvage a point. "It was far too easy for Barnsley to come through us and we have a lot of work to do before the next game.

"It might have been entertaining for the neutral, but it didn't do a lot for me. On the back of a really strong and disciplined display at Doncaster, this came as a surprise, especially as we had worked all week on the team shape.

"There was no desire to defend for the first 20 minutes and it was too easy for the opposition. I told them before the game to go out there are play, but you also need to have some aggression in your defending and we never had that. We'll analyse the video and we definitely won't let it go. You cannot concede three goals every week if you want to be successful and we need to work hard on being solid as a team."

Stand-in skipper Cole Skuse left the pitch on a stretcher after seven minutes of Saturday's game and becomes the latest player to join the ranks of the casualty list at City.

Millen said: "He's damaged his knee and will have a scan. It doesn't look good when a player is taken off on a stretcher and it looks as though we've lost another one, which is disappointing."