DEFIANT Blues boss Stuart Pearce has insisted that he will not walk away from his 'fantastic job' at City.

Mounting anger and discontent in the stands and a precarious position only six points clear of the relegation places have certainly not damaged the manager's belief that if he is given time and money, he will get things right at the club.

Pearce is adamant that he doesn't fear the sack and accepts the fans' current criticism as coming with the job.

Defeat to Wigan on Saturday, the Blues' fourth on the trot in the Premiership and the eighth time in 14 tries that they had failed to score at home, was the last straw for many supporters.

There followed a mini-demonstration outside the main entrance calling for a change in the dug-out whilst many others bombarded radio phone-ins and this M.E.N. site with their demands for Pearce to be removed.

That rumbling of discontent has been mirrored in the board room and a lengthy Monday meeting is believed to have discussed the manager's position before deciding to stick with the former England skipper.

Spiralling

There have been no public pronouncements and no dreaded vote of confidence from chairman John Wardle and his directors, who are worried that spiralling league form may, at best, delay and worst scupper plans for a big-money takeover of the club by foreign investors.

But Pearce, on the eve of his second anniversary in charge after taking over from Kevin Keegan, has mounted a strong defence of his reign at Sportcity and has vowed that he will not walk away from it

"Why should I? I have got a fantastic job, one of the best in the country," he asserted.

"This is one of the biggest clubs in the country. That is where we stand. If I had spent £50m, £60m, or £70m putting talent on the pitch and it wasn't happening then I might say to myself `hang on a minute son you haven't done it' but that has not been the case.

"I am quite happy working here and I hope that I am doing so for many years to come.

"In the job that I do, I sometimes look at managers and think to myself `have you not been sacked because the club cannot afford to pay you off?'

"I do not afford myself that kind of luxury. I tread on a tightrope from that point of view because there is no compensation clause in my contract. I prefer it that way because you know where you stand.

"If you are in work on a Monday morning you are there because the employers want you to be there not because of any outside, ulterior motive."

Pearce, whose side face a daunting week with an FA Cup quarter-final at Blackburn followed three days later by Chelsea's visit to Sportcity, is unyielding in his assertion that he didn't worry about the tap on the shoulder or a bad news phone call from the chairman after the defeat to Wigan.

"I don't fear the sack," he said bluntly. "I have gone into football management knowing full well that somewhere along the line, by the law of averages, I am probably going to get the sack.

"I don't fear for my job because I know what it entails from Monday to Friday, and then getting results at the weekend. I used to fear for my job when I worked for the council when I needed to pay my mum rent or the mortgage.

"I think I have a fantastic staff around me and a good group of players and it is now down to me to get results. Everything else is really a side issue that doesn't overly concern me. If somewhere down the line I am going to get the sack it will happen. Worrying about it will not avert it or make it any quicker."

Pearce is confident that the current furore will not affect his players' ability to launch a successful survival bid and he urged fans not to think that all is doom and gloom, especially with so many games still to play.

Opportunities

"I hark back to before Christmas when we lost at Wigan in a very poor game and come the Monday morning everyone was there ready to work, even those who had opportunities to pull out with injuries or one thing and another. From that moment on I knew I was working with a very genuine squad," he added.

"We have been given a bit of a nosebleed last weekend. We have had a bad result in front of our own fans, one or two people have had a moan and, if you like, the pressure has cranked up on me. That's fine.

"I know the players will respond. They will turn around and say they want to work hard on the training pitch. Once you have got that, and when you have always got that, then you are home and dry.

"At this club over the last two years there have been a lot of things right and a few things wrong. We know what the short-comings are. This season they are there for all to see. It is important that - no matter what my future is at City - the baby doesn't go out with the bath water.

"I still feel as though there is a hell of lot right at this club, that we get a few wins together, learn from what has happened this season and we approach next season in a different vein to improve what we have already done.

"The most disappointing thing about last Saturday was that if we had put three points to bed then all talk of relegation from people outside the club would have diminished. What we did was give a leg-up to a team that were looking over their shoulder. That's the most disappointing thing.

"There is still a third of the season to go and it is important that people keep an eye on that.

"We know what we have got to do and the bottom line is that our own fate is in our own hands. There are three teams below us who would swap places and we know that one win will vault us up the table."

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