Gillingham boss Steve Lovell is keeping an open mind about the players on expiring contracts.

Fourteen of the club’s professionals have deals that run out in the summer.

Alex Lacey, Luke O’Neill, Barry Fuller and Billy Bingham are among those out of contract when the current season ends.

But Lovell said: “There are still opportunities for people to stake a claim for next year.

“It goes all the way through the squad. There are still six games to go and still opportunities.

“All they have to do is continue what they are doing and then decisions will be made on them.

“We have spoken in the office and we know perhaps what we would like to do but there is still a lot of time for decisions to be made, one way or another.”

The club have already made offers to goalkeeper Tomas Holy and leading scorer Tom Eaves but both are keeping their options open.

Gillingham still have work to do to ensure they will be a League 1 club next season – they take on play-off chasing Peterborough this Saturday – but Lovell is keen to get that done soon and focus on improving their hopes for the 2019/20 campaign.

He said: “We have thought about next season and where we need to strengthen and our targets.

“That goes on non-stop, along with people you are looking at and the ways we can improve.

“You can’t legislate for injuries and I thought that the squad that we got together last summer was a good squad. We started brightly but injuries took their toll early on.

“Getting the boys in during January gave us a boost and it is a shame I haven’t been able to play Billy King and Tahvon Campbell, because the boys have been in good form. They understand that and those two are good players.

“I am happy to have them in the squad, I have no problem playing them if and when they are needed. But at the moment the boys are performing well enough, the team I’m putting out are keeping quite a few players out.”

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Lovell has managed to shape the squad more towards his own choosing in the last 18 months and believes their dressing room is currently a good place to be.

He said: “The camaraderie in the dressing room is fantastic.

“We have worked hard on that this year, trying to get to the point where we have a happy dressing room and that is so important.

“It has been a challenge and that has been a major change that I felt had to be made.

“Everyone is pulling in the same direction. It has taken a while but we have got to the stage now where I am more than happy with what we have got in our dressing room.”

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