KEY striker Marlon King is out of the Gillingham squad to face old rivals Crystal Palace at Priestfield on Saturday.

King limped out of the game at Wigan last Saturday suffering with a hamstring problem and he wasn’t able to train on Thursday.

Hessenthaler said: "It is a blow as he and Rod (Wallace) were getting an understanding. But now I might start Mamady Sidibe or Paul Shaw could come back in - or both.”

Hessenthaler stressed: “We are positive and we are going to go out there believing we are going to win the game. We do that before every game we play but just of late we haven’t been getting results.

"We need to be strong and play at a good tempo. Everyone must give 100 per cent. We need a little bit of the rub of the green and we also need to go on a run and start climbing the table."

He added: "Palace have been indifferent like ourselves. I watched them at Ipswich though and they didn’t deserve to lose. They are on the right lines."