City had to contend with the concession of an early goal, lively opponents and some of their own players being targeted by the home crowd, but the team fronted up to all these and after taking the lead were able to absorb the home side’s increasingly frenzied attacks.
City certainly did not have as many chances as the hosts, but crucially made the most of what they did have, and the manager was delighted with the improvement on last weekend’s performance.
“I was very disappointed with the way we started the game, but the more the game went on, the more I thought there were chances for us.’” said Pearce.
“I thought we passed the ball better than we did last weekend, and generally I thought it was a good all-round team performance. Dotted inside that, there were some very good individual performances by certain players.”
Darius Vassell was one of the players on the receiving end of the boo-boys in the home crowd, but his partnership with Andrew Cole caused real problems for the home defence, and along with the performance of his goalkeeper their combination was another plus point for Pearce.
“I’ve signed two players that are very honest and team-oriented, and I thought they played very well today. David James was under a bit of pressure today, but he put in another sterling effort today, but I don’t expect anything less from him.”
Stephen Jordan gave another assured performance in central defence, and with Richard Dunne not looking like he has missed any football of late the team did not look to be missing its other defensive rock, Sylvain Distin.
“I feel I have a reasonable squad here, we need to add two or three to the squad but there’s no point me worrying about Sylvain being out. It’s important that the likes of Steve Jordan can fill in and fill his boots. In the last two games he’s done extremely well. With Dunnie, who’s probably not at full fitness, they held the defence extremely well. There were so many good points in our side, I feel a bit false singling out certain players.”
City’s unbeaten run has now extended to 10 games, the club’s best for six years, and Pearce says that he is proud of what he and the team have achieved since he took over.
“I’m proud for them in the dressing room, What we have done is base the club on a team ethic since I have been in charge.”
