Nott'm Forest Legends: Stuart Pearce

By Michael Lynch
July 3 2004

Stuart Pearce was a true Nottingham Forest and England legend. Courageous, strong (mentally and physically) and a firm favourite with the fans. There was nothing to dislike about this man and his performances over the years have earned him a permanent place in City Ground folklore.

Forest Legends #1: Stuart Pearce

Saturday 3rd July 2004

Caps: 78

Date of Birth: 24.04.1962

Birthplace:
Shepherds Bush

Goals: 5

Senior Debut: 19.05.1987

Biography:
Psycho! Psycho! Psycho! What a legend! In his day undoubtedly the best defender in the world! Stuart Pearce could ignite and liven up the atmosphere of a game just by touching the ball, and his extremely powerful yet precise challenges would strike fear into any attacker who had the unfortunate task of playing against him.

Psycho will always be remembered for one moment in his career. The time he had the courage to take a penalty in the European Championships against Germany- despite missing one in the 1990 World Cup which had seen England go crashing out. Stuart scored this one, but unfortunately Chris Waddle's miss meant that we still lost. Stuart, being the professional that he is, shared his experience with Chris and comforted him through this hard time.

The BBC's Barry Davies said on the commentary, "What a penalty! What a great penalty!" It was not a great penalty; it was a **** penalty but the goalkeeper had gone the wrong way. - From Pearce's Autobiography, "Psycho."

An amazing fact about Pearce is that he almost and probably would not have made it into professional football at all, despite being an England and Forest legend. The defender was playing for non-league Wealdstone when he was luckily spotted by Bobby Gould! He then signed for Coventry City and made 51 appearances for them before Brian Clough bought him as part of a deal that saw his main target, Butterworth, come here.

During his career Stuart also earned himself 71 caps for England and was also the captain of Nottingham Forest for part of his 12 years, 522 games and 88 goals at the club. It was determination and sportsmanship that made him the perfect candidate for the job.

Stuart Pearce is now a learning the ropes in the world of coaching and one day we all hope that he will come back as part of the management at The City Ground.

International Goals
25 Apr 1990 England 4 v 2 Czechoslovakia
08 Jun 1991 England 2 v 0 New Zealand
18 Nov 1992 England 4 v 0 Turkey
08 Sep 1993 England 3 v 0 Poland
15 Nov 1995 England 3 v 1 Switzerland