Nottingham Forest blog: Pearce should be given time

Despite all of my criticisms of Stuart Pearce this season, I definitely think that he should be given the whole season to prove people wrong.

In the stands I’m hearing a lot of people suggesting that he should get the axe. Ludicrous really because in the Championship, anything can happen, I would like to think that come the season’s end, if we are not promoted then Psycho would be man enough to walk away.

Football is a very fickle game these days and managers don’t seem to last five minutes before getting the sack.

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To be honest, the Forest job is a poisoned chalice. Since the reign of Brian Clough the levels of expectancy at the club have been far too high and the fans are very quick to draw the knives.

Worth noting then, that before Clough we had only two FA Cups in our cabinet. People seem to think that we’re a big club, we are not though. We are an average-sized club with a big past, one that our chairman is desperate to resurrect.

But having won those European Cups has enabled us to attract decent crowds, players and managers alike.

At this moment in time we have an excellent squad and we should be in the play-off spots at least.

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Clubs like Brentford and Bournemouth are putting us to shame but if we were to sack Pearce mid-season it would achieve nothing at all.

Forest took on old foes Leeds United in Sky Sports’ Saturday evening game and were favourites to win.

The away side started brightly and Karl Darlow was forced into making a great save with his legs early on and Forest had a goal disallowed soon after.

MichailAntonio cut in from the left and fed Matty Fryatt who was definitely onside when he hit the back of the net.

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His next effort did count though as he put the home side in front. Michael Mancienne headed goalwards from a corner and the former Leicester striker slid the ball home from close range to give the Reds a 1-0 half-time lead.

Leeds drew level by means of a controversial penalty when Sam Byron sold Danny Fox a neat dummy, and although the yellow-bearded defender appeared to stick out a leg the Leeds player made a meal of it and won the spot-kick. Up stepped former Forest favourite Billy Sharp to level the scores.

The officials were having a shocker and Fryatt was deemed offside once again when he scored from Robert Tesche’s flicked header. Again the replay showed that he was onside and he had been denied a clear hat-trick!

Forest deserved to win this game as they did in the Charlton match, and I actually felt for Pearce this time because you could see the genuine disbelief and dejection on his face at the final whistle.

His side created chances but were robbed by the referee!