Editing Stuart Pearce (section)

===Nottingham Forest===
Two years later in 1985, Pearce was brought to [[Nottingham Forest F.C.|Nottingham Forest]] by manager [[Brian Clough]] in a combined deal which also saw Coventry centre-back [[Ian Butterworth]] move to Forest. Despite the transfer, Pearce was still unsure of his prospects in the professional game and even advertised his services as an electrician in Forest's match-day programme.

Pearce spent twelve years at Forest, most of it as club captain. During his playing career, he won two [[Football League Cup|League Cups]] and the [[Full Members Cup]], while also scoring from a [[Direct free kick|free-kick]] in the [[1991 FA Cup Final|1991 FA Cup final]], when Forest were beaten by [[Tottenham Hotspur F.C.|Tottenham Hotspur]]. In his time at the [[City Ground]], Pearce was one of the Forest players who had to cope with the horrors of the [[Hillsborough disaster]] during the opening minutes of their FA Cup semi-final against [[Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool]]. Pearce played in the rescheduled match at [[Old Trafford]], which Liverpool won 3–1. He helped them finish third in the league that year (as they had done a year earlier), and also contributed to their victories in the [[EFL Cup|League Cup]] and Full Members Cup. He helped them retain the League Cup a year later and in 1991 he had his first crack at the [[FA Cup]], and despite giving Forest an early lead against Tottenham in a match most remembered for the knee injury suffered by Pearce's opponent [[Paul Gascoigne]], Pearce ended up on the losing side as Spurs came back to win 2–1. He missed out on a [[Wembley Stadium (1923)|Wembley]] appearance the following season as Forest lost 1–0 to [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]] in the [[1992 Football League Cup Final|1992 League Cup final]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=42765|title=Sporting Heroes|work= Sporting-Heroes.net|publisher=George Herringshaw}}</ref>

In 1993, Forest were relegated from the Premier League and [[Brian Clough]] resigned after 18 years as manager, but Pearce opted to stay at the [[City Ground]] and captained Forest to an instant return to the top flight as Division One runners-up. He helped Forest finish third in the Premier League in 1995 and reach the [[UEFA Cup]] quarter-finals in 1996.

In [[1996–97 in English football|1996–97 season]], Forest struggled in the league and manager [[Frank Clark (footballer)|Frank Clark]] resigned in December, which saw 34-year-old Pearce appointed [[caretaker manager|caretaker]] [[player-manager]] of Forest in December 1996. His first match in charge was at home to [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]] in the league. He admitted in an interview with ''[[Match of the Day]]'' that, in his first attempt at picking a starting XI, he did not realise until it was pointed out to him by his wife that he had omitted [[Goalkeeper (association football)|goalkeeper]] [[Mark Crossley]]. Forest, however, won the match 2–1, coming from behind after an [[Ian Wright]] goal with two goals from [[Alfie Haaland]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.soccerbot.com/fa/results/ukprem97.htm|title=UK Premier League 1996-1997 |work=Soccerbot}}</ref> Despite winning [[FA Premier League Manager of the Month|Manager of the Month award]] in January 1997, he would later share the caretaker role with [[Dave Bassett]], and Forest were relegated, finishing in bottom place.

Pearce opted to leave the club on a free transfer at the end of the [[1996–97 in English football|1996–97 season]] after 12 years at the City Ground.