Stuart Pearce believes Nottingham Forest have laid down a marker for themselves with their win over arch rivals Derby County – and says they must make this result the one that kick starts their season.
Ben Osborn snatched a spectacular injury time winner to seal a 2-1 victory at the iPro and, at the same time, lift some of the pressure off the shoulders of his manager.
It was just the tonic Forest needed following a poor run of just two wins in 20 games that had left Pearce to face speculation over his future.
Forest had to produce an improved second half display after a Henri Lansbury own goal had given the Rams the lead in the 16th minute. Britt Assombalonga showed his predatory instincts to fire the Reds level in the 75th minute, before Osborn then stepped up with a superb goal to snatch all three points for the visitors two minutes into injury time.
With a massive three points in the bag, Pearce says it is now vital for Forest to build on this result when they head to Fulham on Wednesday night – and has told his players they have set the bar for themselves with this victory.
"We even gave Derby a goal start in the game, but managed to turn it around. I think it had been coming. We hope now that it is the catalyst to push us on for the rest of the season," said Pearce.
"I think the players put a marker down today, I really do. The last thing I said to them at our hotel this morning was that it was important for them to put down a marker; to give our fans something that they could be proud of.
"I think they did that. They set the bar for themselves now, with that performance. We have to use that as a building block. It is a great result for us, in this part of the world, against a Derby side who still want to win promotion – and will be very close to that."
Pearce told his players 'not to take a step backwards' during his half time team talk and Forest did emerge with fresh determination.
"We had a game, plan, we worked hard this week on the things we felt might nullify Derby and also on how we could have a theat. I've got to give credit to our players. To a man, they were outstanding and worked tirelessly for the team," said the manager.
"We are very pleased with the way this game has gone. But we have to be ready to back this up now, on Wednesday night. The general shape of our team in the second half was much better. We had lost it a little bit against Sheffield Wednesday.
"It was vitally important not to concede a second goal, we had to stay in the game and we did that."
