GILLINGHAM are bracing themselves for a transfer deadline day bid for striker Marlon King. The former Barnet man is sure to have attracted the Premiership big guns with his exploits in the last couple of seasons and his performance against Notts Forest on Saturday will have made a few more sit up and take notice.

But Hessenthaler has slapped a £5million price tag on his prize asset in a bid to keep hold of the 21-year-old hitman who now has 18 goals to his name this season after bagging two more in a stirring 3-1 win over Forest on Saturday.

The manager said: "There are a few good strikers around but Marlon is up there with them because of the amount of goals he has scored. While he is scoring goals as he did against Forest he will be very hard to keep hold of. But we need him at the club at the present time. It would have to be a very good bid for us to be tempted."

After Saturday's match Hessenthaler came to the defence of his young goalkeeper, Jason Brown, who gifted Forest their goal after a calamitous mistake when he stood on the ball and fell trying to control Guy Butters' back pass.

Hessenthaler said: "Jason made a mistake but we've gone on to win the game. I felt sorry for the lad. He was trying to get it clear, trod on the ball and their fella has nipped in and tucked it away.

"I thought that in the end we thoroughly deserved to win the game. There wasn't much I could say to Jason at half time. Everyone makes mistakes and the lad will learn from that, and the crowd got behind him because they knew he had made a mistake but they helped keep his head up and he did very well in the end."

Brown also had special praise for the fans that backed him on Saturday. He said: "The fans have been quality from day one. They have been very generous to me. I made a mistake and they could have turned against me. But they didn't they got right behind me."