BOSS Sean O'Driscoll believes the additions of Leon Best and Lionel Ainsworth has made Cherries "as strong as we've been for a very long time as an attacking force".

The two young strikers yesterday completed their respective loan moves to Dean Court as O'Driscoll put the finishing touches to his squad ahead of the new season.

Best, who will don the vacant number nine shirt, has joined Cherries on a month's loan from Southampton with a view to extending his stay until the end of the year.

And England under-19 international Ainsworth, 18, has finalised a long-term loan deal from Derby, which will keep him at Dean Court at least until December 31.

The pair are the final pieces of the jigsaw for O'Driscoll and will both go straight into the squad for Cherries' League One curtain-raiser against Chesterfield on Saturday.

And their arrivals will spice up competition for places among a seven-strong strikeforce, which also includes James Hayter, Steve Fletcher and youngsters Conal Platt, Brett Pitman and Curtis Allen.

An upbeat O'Driscoll told the Daily Echo: "We have never had that many striking options in my time here. We've always had to mix and match but now we've got four frontline strikers and three young lads with great potential.

"We didn't score enough goals throughout pre-season and knew it was something we had to address. Squad-wise and attacking-wise, this is probably as strong as we've been for a very long time."

O'Driscoll had been targeting Best throughout pre-season and the 19-year-old was also being tracked by two other League One clubs.

"He will give us pace and power," said O'Driscoll. "He's plied his trade on loan at a couple of Championship clubs and we've had good reports from everybody about him.

"I don't think Southampton would have loaned him to another club in their division although I imagine that if they were still in the Premiership, he would have gone to the Championship.

"But that's not the case so this is the ideal place for him. We've got a good relationship with Southampton and a lot of their boys who have come here have done really well so you would hope to add Leon to the list. We hope he'll do really well for us and go back a better player."

Discussing Ainsworth's merits, O'Driscoll added: "I've seen him play in Derby's reserves but Jeff Baskerville, our Midlands scout, has been watching him since he was a 15-year-old.

"He's got a good pedigree and he will also give us pace. He can play out wide on either side and up front and we saw enough on Saturday against a Premiership defence to think he'll give defenders problems in our division.

"We've lacked somebody like that ever since Wade Elliott went and now Jim O'Connor has gone as well, we do lack a bit of pace. We've got good legs in the squad but nobody's exceptionally quick so Leon and Lionel will give us a good base to start from, although we've still got to work hard."