Crystal Palace leave door open

Crystal Palace need to realise that parking the bus away from home is no good if you leave the back door open for a few seconds - because there is no way back.

Manager Dougie Freedman took his defensive masterplan that has seen Palace go 12 hours without conceding a goal at Selhurst Park to Portsmouth last night - but they were undone by David Nugent's 65th-minute winner.

Palace are now only three points above the relegation zone and have the worst away record in the Championship, winning just one of their 17 games on the road.

Freedman said: "We were resilient and defended with quality but just didn't get the luck we needed. We've just come up a little bit short."