PAUL Hartley's move from Bristol City to Heart of Midlothian has moved a step closer.

Hearts director Sergejus Fedotovas is awaiting approval to push ahead with the signing of the 33-year-old, who left Tynecastle in £1.1 million switch to Celtic in 2007.

Hartley is halfway through a two-year contract at Ashton Gate but City manager Steve Coppell will allow the homesick Scotland player to return north.

Fedotovas said: "We are finalising the approval process for signing Paul Hartley, so I hope that we will be able to sign the player in the near future.

"I think that, in the next day or two, this will be absolutely clear and we will be given the green light to go ahead with this signing, which I hope we will be able to make."

"I understand that he is very popular with the fans, but we still need to wait a little bit to find out the possibilities.

"Generally, amongst the board there is support for this move, so we need to formalise a few things and wait a few days for a final decision."

Meanwhile, City are themselves set to enter the transfer market in an attempt to bolster their injury-hit attacking options.

First-choice strikers Nicky Maynard and Danny Haynes will almost certainly be ruled out of City's npower Championship opener against Millwall on August 7 and manager Steve Coppell has made signing cover a priority.

The Post understands City are poised to bid for an unnamed striker this weekend with a view to completing a deal before next Saturday's final pre-season friendly against Blackpool at Ashton Gate.

Wednesday's 2-1 defeat at Torquay revealed the dearth of striking options available to Coppell, who started the game with David Clarkson and John Akinde and introduced youth product Marlon Jackson in the second half.

City have been linked with West Bromwich Albion forward Ishmail Miller, Stoke City hitman Dave Kitson and Wigan Athletic striker Jason Scotland in recent days, but the Post can reveal none of those players are targets for Coppell.

An Ashton Gate source confirmed City are in the market for "an all-round striker" and anticipated a "substantial" bid being made over the weekend.

Coppell refused to be drawn on speculation, saying: "I don't discuss names unless the deal is more or less done.

"All I can say is there are a lot of names out there and we have to be interested in improving. On the evidence of the performances we have seen so far, we can certainly improve."

Making reference to injured duo Maynard and Haynes and the need to increase his attacking options, he added: "You cannot afford to wait, you have to try to do something about it. My job on a weekly basis is to try to improve upon what is already there.

"That comes about on the training field, but it also sometimes comes about in the transfer market. The strike force that played at the end of last season is not available to us and we are lacking a bit of pace up front."

Meanwhile, Coppell admits Bristol City's pre-season schedule is proving burdensome to an injury-hit squad.

City travel to Aldershot today to contest their fifth friendly match in 12 days and then face trips to Exeter and Yeovil before completing their warm-up programme with a home game against Premier League newcomers Blackpool next Saturday.

Coppell is being forced to manage his depleted resources carefully and, in hindsight, fears eight games in three weeks may be too many.

He said: "We have a number of games to play in a short space of time and perhaps we over-calculated how deep the squad would be at this stage."