Cole, a prolific marksman in over 10 years as a Premiership player, has already opened his account for the Blues with a superb first-time strike against Birmingham.
As well as goal scoring Cole has many more facets to his play, and it was his strength on the ball that allowed him to set up Trevor Sinclair for his goal at Sunderland on Tuesday.
It is this aspect of Cole’s game that Pearce saw at first hand during the times he played against the striker himself, and everything he has seen since Cole joined City has re-iterated what he admired about him in the first place.
“Since I’ve worked with him in the short space of time that he’s been here, you realise how good he is on the ball,” says Pearce. “The reason why he’s so good on the ball, and why he doesn’t seem to give it away is because his first touch is that good.
“He puts the ball exactly where he wants it, and that’s a lesson for young players. That’s partly why he’s here as well, so the young players can look at him and Darius and the way they are doing it.”
Pearce is already on record this season as to how he hopes that the younger strikers at the club watch and learn from his two new acquisitions, and with the reserves making a decent start to their campaign, the lessons look like they are sinking in already.
“We’ll say to our kids playing in the reserves, ‘Look at how this fella’s playing up front, and have a look at how Darius wins tackles against defenders’. I can try and teach it out on the training field, but there’s no better learning tool for the kids than watching Andy Cole.”
