Gillingham boss Steve Lovell hasn’t given up hope of keeping 20-goal striker Tom Eaves at the club.

Eaves headed home his 20th of the season on Saturday in a 4-2 win over AFC Wimbledon – a victory that leaves them on the verge of safety.

Talks over a new deal have previously come to nothing but it’s not over for Lovell.

He said: “It goes without saying that someone who scores 20 goals with seven games to go is the type of player we want to keep.

“It’s not just for his football ability but his personality, his work ethic, everything about him, he is such a nice lad.

“Apart from his goals, he has got better and better, especially in the last three or four months.

“He works hard and anybody looking at him (on Saturday) would like what they saw.

“He has loved it here at this football club. We would love him to stay but that is out of my hands.

“Me and the chairman want him to stay and we will do anything we possibly can to keep him with us, everything we can. We don’t want to let people like Tom go and hopefully we won’t.”

Like Eaves, goalkeeper Tomas Holy is also out of contract in the summer and is expected to leave – but he is another player Lovell would love to stay.

Holy clocked up his 100th appearance for the club in the win over AFC Wimbledon.

Lovell said: “We don’t want to lose anyone from the club and the main thing is the attitude of the players.

“If they want to work hard and if they want to get better and go higher in their career, enjoy their football and buy into what you are doing then you want them to stay.

“Everyone knows their contracts are up at the end of the season but we will try our hardest to keep them both at the club.”

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Striker Eaves has struck up a good partnership with Brandon Hanlan, who netted his sixth of the campaign in the weekend win.

“Brandon is getting better and better every week,” added Lovell.

“You could see the way he dictates play against the opposition defence when he plays up front.

“All that is missing from his game is goals and he will get them, he is getting into the areas where he will score.

“They are forming a good partnership and I am just disappointed we only have seven games left.”

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