Gillingham sliced apart by Merson's cutting edge

Gillingham 1 Portsmouth 3

If effort alone had brought a reward yesterday, Gillingham might have finished with something for their endeavours. But everything came to the team for whom the rewards are won with seeming effortless ease. Quite simply, this was Paul Merson's match.

Even with a near full-strength team, Gillingham had been on a downhill run since three straight wins put them on top of the pile. Portsmouth, with their profusion of new players led by Merson and directed by Harry Redknapp, rather expected that the Gills were unlikely to stay ahead of them for long.

Not that Merson himself is convinced his new team can stroll it. He made that clear before yesterday's match, saying that it was no good creating handfuls of chances if too few were grabbed.

Although the Gillingham physio had brought Tommy Johnson and Guy Ipoua back into contention, the absentees – Rod Wallace, Mamady Sidibe, Jason Brown and, especially, Nyron Nosworthy – were significant. Nevertheless, work-rate is the team's foundation and, though a curled low shot from Merson on six minutes almost took the paint from the post, they muscled on, with Johnson heading equally close.

Portsmouth wanted to settle and let everything filter through Merson, whose perceptive pass allowed Mark Burchill to slide a shot a shade wide, but Gillingham challenged for everything and created chances of their own. Indeed, Shaka Hislop had to tip a drive from Paul Shaw on to the crossbar at the end of a typically zestful attack.

Johnson had to abandon the game after only 23 minutes and, almost before Gillingham could rearrange themselves, Matthew Taylor sent the ball hard across the penalty area. There was Merson to divert it beyond Vince Bartram for a lead not entirely justified in terms of possession but merited on the basis of quality and movement. The quality manifested itself again shortly before half-time when Merson stabbed the ball across the face of a puzzled defence. Mark Patterson hesitated and Burchill, making his first full appearance this season after a serious knee injury, carefully threaded home.

Merson is now 34 but is a huge loss to the Premiership and a massive asset to Portsmouth. He saw less of the ball here than in recent matches yet rarely wasted one. He rations his long runs, but with Taylor prepared to do so much of the groundwork, that hardly matters.

Gillingham's attempts to claw their way back were laced with their usual steel but without the invention Ports-mouth could conjure in midfield. High centres regularly failed but getting possession to Ipoua on the ground was never easy and, after 67 minutes, it was a lofted cross that brought Gillingham a hint of recovery. Mark Saunders centred to the far post and substitute Kevin James headed firmly down and in.

"At that point," Redknapp confessed, "if they had scored again they might have won the game. They made a real match of it and it proved that we haven't got strength in depth." To the Portsmouth manager's relief, though, Merson took possession in the 79th minute, when a Gillingham attack broke down, with Nigel Quashie available on his left and substitute Gary O'Neil to his right. The former Aston Villa midfielder held the ball long enough to make Bartram come out in an attempt to intercept, but the goalkeeper knew it was a lost cause.

O'Neil easily beat him with a low shot that in the end brought Portsmouth the win their attractive, effective football justified.

Gillingham 1
James 68

Portsmouth 3
Merson 29, Burchill 45, O'Neil 79

Half-time: 0-2 Attendance: 8,717