ANDY HESSENTHALER has vowed to be relentless in his drive to see Gillingham climax their season in a top 10 finish.

As he prepared for Saturday's visit of Nottingham Forest, the Gills boss dismissed any notion of the team resting on their laurels after reaching the safety benchmark of 50 points and reminded the squad that many were playing for their futures.

"When a team is neither going up or down, players could be forgiven for taking their foot off the pedal," he said. "We have got it into the players heads that we want to finish on a high and they have responded. Of course, they have appearance money and win bonuses, which act as an incentive, but I would like to think that the players here are determined to keep progressing.

"If we can get 60 points that would give us a top half finish. There are 24 points to play for and I would like to think we could get at least half of that which would put us on 63-64 points.

"The present squad are fighting for their futures with some out of contract and other negotiating new deals. So they need to show me that they should be at the club next season."

But Hessenthaler's belief that the higher Gillingham finish the more money the club stands to win in sponsorship incentives was refuted today by John Nagle of the Nationwide League's communications department.

"There is no money to be won from league placings," he said. "Flat payments were handed out to all clubs at the start of the season. Apart from the £50,000 due to the Division 1 title winners and the £25,000 that goes to the runners-up, that's it."