TWO of South London's hottest properties confront each other tonight at Priestfield when Gillingham's Marlon King faces Clinton Morrison of Crystal Palace in a duel of the sharp-shooters. Dulwich-born King, with nine goals under his belt, will be wanting to take centre stage at the expense of his more prolific Tooting-born rival who collected his 15th of the season in Saturday's 4-1 defeat of Crewe.

Gillingham player-manager Andy Hessenthaler said: "They are two of the brightest prospects around at the moment and their performances tonight will give the game an extra edge,. Marlon won't thank me for saying this, but Clinton Morrison is ahead of him right now, and not just in terms of goals.

"He's broken into the Republic of Ireland squad, which is where Marlon wants to be. It will add to Marlon's motivation. While we'll be looking to contain Morrison and Dougie Freedman, Palace will be paying special attention to Marlon."

As Gillingham go in search of their second win in two months tonight, David Perpetuini has won the right to replace J-Lloyd Samuel on the left flank of the defence.With Samuel on international duty for the England Under-20 side at Southampton, Perpetuini, Mark Patterson and Guy Butters were in contention.

Though the rest of the starting line-up remains unchanged, there will be changes on the bench. On-loan striker Robert Taylor is out for two weeks after sustaining a hamstring injury in a practice match on Monday while Mark Saunders missed training on Monday with a stomach upset. Hessenthaler returns to the bench tonight along with fit-again Mark Patterson.