Pearce faces up to the pressure

Stuart Pearce ended a troubled week with a smile on his face and insisted he never let himself be affected by the pressure heaped on Manchester City.

After 13 defeats in 16 games, speculation had surfaced that Pearce had two games to save his job. Although City officials had distanced themselves from such claims, Pearce did appear to be a man under siege ahead of Saturday's 2-0 win over West Ham.

"Pressure is part and parcel of the job," he said. "I am one of 20 managers in the Premiership and my team plays in front of 40,000 fans every week. If I lose my nerve every time a little bit of pressure comes on my shoulders, I don't have much of a chance do I?"

Recognising the urgent need for victory, Pearce's players responded with a gritty, battling performance in which teenage duo Ishmael Miller and Micah Richards were two of the stand-out stars.

It was Georgios Samaras, the man Pearce was prepared to pay £6million to get from Heerenveen in January, who grabbed the goals, though, netting twice after half-time after almost opening his account during the opening period.

Miller's lung-bursting 70-yard run set up Samaras' opener, the Greek capitalising on Javier Mascherano's ill-advised decision to wait for the ball to drop after it had looped skywards off Christian Dailly.

Samaras promptly belted a volley into the top corner before adding a second after 63 minutes, calmly chipping home Bernardo Corradi's through-ball.

"It is unfair to put the price tag around his neck," added Pearce. "Effectively, what we did was take a gamble on a young man who would be too expensive for us to buy once he reached his peak.

"You have to remember, he is only 21. If Ishmael Miller falls over, nobody cares, if Georgios does, people brand him a £6million flop.

"He has a great attitude, we have already seen a steady improvement in him and he has got two goals, which is good news because it is very difficult to score in the Premiership."