02/04/06 - City 0 Boro 1Updated: October 3rd, 2007
Four league defeats on the trot, no goals in more than 270 minutes of football and a truly shocking performance against Boro.
Do not adjust your sets….City’s players have entered the Comfort Zone.
This is what a clearly emotional Pearce said to the BBC after the game:
Pearce: To be honest with you, I’m never really one to mix my words, I was quite disgusted with our performance today. I’m the one who has to take the blame for that. I’m the manager of this football club and I’m the first one to stand up and then just behind me were probably ten individuals I would say. I couldn’t include the goalkeeper in that, I thought he did okay. But the rest of them…absolutely awful. I feel really sorry for the supporters. There was a performance out there that I’d never seen. A lack of moral courage, a lack of someone standing up and saying: ‘right, I’m going to take responsibility today’. Didn’t see any of that. I think Middlesbrough came here in between two tough games in the cup and couldn’t believe their luck with what was up against them today. To be honest with you I’m quite disgusted by it.
Interviewer: How concerning is that for you?
Pearce: Very. I want to be successful as a manager. I will be successful as a manager. Now if I’ve got to push two or three people out of my way to get where I’m going, I’ll do it. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m very pleasant to the players. I look after the players. I back the players. I can’t back that.
Interviewer: Have they got a tough week ahead of them now?
Pearce: Of course. They’ve got to look me in the eye every time they walk past me in the corridor. I don’t have to run them. It’s my job to coach them and improve them and put confidence into them. And they’ve got to look me in the eye at the end of the week and put a performance on next time because if I was a supporter of this football club I would have probably done exactly the same as I saw a Middlesbrough fan do last week, shove a season ticket straight in my face to be honest with you.
Interviewer: It’s a steep learning curve, management, how big a test is this for you now?
Pearce: Every game’s a test. There’s no problem with that, that doesn’t worry me. Now I have to make sure that the words that come out of my mouth and my actions, make sure that there’s a performance next week. That’s the bottom line. We have to start next week. We’ve given three points away today. I don’t want to take any credit away from Middlesbrough. They’ve come here in between a very difficult couple of weeks in regard to cup matches and had no opposition to play because we didn’t have the bottle to play them.
Interviewer: And but for your keeper if could have been a heavier defeat than one-nil suggests.
Pearce: It was a three or four-nil game to be honest with you. We were wide open because no-one stood up and was counted. That’s the bottom line. I can’t hide behind ‘we were unlucky, it was only one-nil, we had opportunities’. I’m not prepared to do that. We weren’t good enough. My fault. My players’ fault. We’ll do something about it. Bottom line.
Another BBC story quotes Pearce saying “it was so spineless it was frightening”, while the Evening News carries this daming quote: “None of them stepped up to the plate. None of them showed any leadership. None of them earned their wages. Without doubt, it was the worst experience I have had as a manager.”
So how worried should we be about this performance? Despite Pearce’s recent claim that City could still qualify for Europe you suspect few City players shared his belief. And let’s face it, after the Cup defeat to West Ham how many of us thought: “well that’s the season over”? So should we be shocked that the players think that too?
How the side respond to this defeat should give us a better insight into Pearce’s abilities. Sadly we will have to wait until the summer transfer window and the new season before we get a clear picture of the board’s ambitions and the manager’s true worth.
match reports
City 0 Middlesbrough 1 (MEN)
Manchester City’s fans brought Stuart Pearce’s honeymoon period as manager to an abrupt halt in today’s defeat against Middlesbrough at Eastlands. The brutal fact remains that City are now likely to end this season in a lower position than they were when Kevin Keegan departed last March. Player ratings
Pearce livid after woeful City sunk by Cattermole (Independent)
Both teams were without key players and it was a slippery surface, yet ready-made excuses provided no justification for City’s drudgery.
Pearce fumes as Boro blow City’s house down (Guardian)
Middlesbrough continued to parade their long-term oneupmanship over Manchester City yesterday afternoon, with Steve McClaren’s team condemning the Blues to a fourth successive Premiership defeat.
Cattermole seals victory for Boro (BBC)
Lee Cattermole’s first Premiership goal was enough to give Middlesbrough victory in a dismal match at Eastlands.
Catt Makes Pearce Sing the Blues (Fly Me to the Moon - Middlesbrough)
The second half was one way traffic. Boro should have had an absolute hatful of goals. Boro players were queuing up to have pot shots as the team stroked the ball around and looked to attack attack attack.
A complete away performance (comeonboro.com)
The game petered out without City even coming close to getting an equaliser. The final whistle was greeted by a huge cheer by the Boro fans who had been vocal throughout. Most City fans would have been sat at home as the final whistle sounded. The home end was empty long before the end.