Portsmouth ensure a rough return for Pulis

Tony Pulis, the Stoke City manager, returned to Fratton Park, where he had been in charge as recently as 2000, with a gameplan designed to stop the Nationwide First Division leaders Portsmouth playing and it worked for the first half.

"Stoke came here to do a job," Harry Redknapp, the Pompey manager, said. "They put 11 men behind the ball and that stifled us, but we started to break them down before half-time."

And finished the job four minutes after Redknapp had delivered his half-time oration, Mark Burchill breaking the deadlock. Late on, Pulis tried to save a point by using all three substitutes, but Pompey were too clever and Vincent Pericard and Svetoslav Todorov scored to increase Pompey's lead at the top to seven points. "We weren't at our best but I'm happy if we perform badly and still win 3-0," Redknapp admitted.

Norwich City ended Crystal Palace's 11-match unbeaten run with a 2-0 win at Carrow Road, Paul McVeigh and Iwan Roberts on target. "I'd put that right up there with our best results of the season," Nigel Worthington, the Canaries manager, reasoned.

But 11 games without defeat is now the extent of Nottingham Forest's run. They moved up to fourth by beating Bradford City 3-0 at the City Ground, Jack Lester, Mathieu Louis-Jean and, with his 100th league goal, David Johnson scoring for Forest. "We know that David is a natural goalscorer," the Forest manager, Paul Hart, said, "but he has so much more to offer to the team. His overall performances this season have been excellent."

At the bottom, the Steve Coppell effect is lifting Brighton. A late Kerry Mayo goal was enough to beat Derby County 1-0 at the Withdean Stadium. The Rams had Malcolm Christie sent off after 52 minutes as Brighton made it seven points from the last three games. They are now just two points behind Sheffield Wednesday who earned their first point under Chris Turner in a 1-1 draw at Gillingham. The Gills led into injury time, but had been down to 10 men since the 80th minute when their player-manager Andy Hessenthaler had been sent off. Wednesday substitute Leon Knight equalised with his first kick.

"Andy has apologised saying he should know and do better than that," the Gills' coach, Richard Hill, said.

Grimsby Town threw away a 3-1 lead in the last 10 minutes at Blundell Park to draw 3-3 with Preston. Simon Ford was sent off for a professional foul, Graham Alexander's penalty made it 3-2 and Dickson Etuhu equalised late on.

Elsewhere, Damien Francis scored in the last minute to give Wimbledon a 3-2 win over Walsall at Selhurst Park. Finally, Rotherham's manager, Ronnie Moore, called it "a tough old game" while to Burnley's Stan Ternent it was "a difficult ugly match". Yes, it was 0-0 at Millmoor.