GILLINGHAM chairman Paul Scally has vowed that the club will go into administration "over my dead body" as the drama over the club's financial problems threatened to develop into a full blown crisis.

Player-manager Andy Hessenthaler disclosed the extent of the club's plight after Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Wigan, admitting that administration was a possibility. Gillingham came out of receivership eight years ago.

Mr Scally, who met with representatives of the players' union the Professional Footballers' Association in Manchester on Friday in an attempt to defer bonus payments, said: "It's not through bad trading or bad management that we find ourselves in this position.

"If we hadn't built the conference and banqueting facilities I don't think it would be a question of whether we're going into administration, I think we would be in administration already and maybe liquidation.

"I don't think there is any advantage to be gained by going into administration. When you take on creditors I believe you should pay them in full and it creates a lot of bad feeling with creditors.

"It sheds a lot of debt possibly but most of our debt is with the bank, therefore administration would not be successful _ if that's the right word - as clubs like Leicester and Ipswich found when they dumped a huge amount of debt.

"Administration is not a route I intend taking and over my dead body will this company go into administration."