Stuart Pearce: A campaign of two stories

By James Clark

When Stuart Pearce was appointed Nottingham Forest manager for a second time in July last year, it's fair to say he was certainly a favourite with the fans.

He originally started life at Forest back in the summer of 1985 after signing from Coventry City for £200,000. He made a total of 524 appearances, scoring 89 goals. Pearce became a legend of the club and was loved by the fans.

He first managed Forest for 23 games in 1996-97, before later going on to Manchester City and England Under-21s.

His return to the City Ground in 2014 started so wonderfully. Five wins from his first seven league games and his first defeat didn't come until his 12th fixture in the Championship. Forest were looking strong and confident - the question on many people's lips - could this be their year to get promoted into the Premier League?

However, it all seemed to go pear-shaped. Pearce's men began slipping down the table, struggling to pick up points. They've only managed three league wins since September 17th. Draws and defeats suddenly became a regular outcome.

Pearce was clearly under pressure, as are all football managers when they're not picking up three points. Forest's 2-1 win away at arch-rivals Derby County two weeks ago arguably kept Pearce in his job for just that little bit longer.

Two further defeats followed the success at the iPro Stadium and this evening it was announced that following talks with the chairman, Pearce was 'relieved of his role of manager with immediate effect'.

I'm sure there'll be mixed feelings among the fans at the City Ground tonight. Some may say that with time and patience, success would've come. But in football these days, it also seems there's little time for managers to achieve that success.