Pearce praise for ‘outstanding’ Ireland

MANCHESTER CITY manager Stuart Pearce has urged Stephen Ireland to be more selfish if he is to become a hit in the Premiership.

Ireland scored his first goal on his 39th appearance to give City a 1-0 win over Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. Ireland struck the drive in the 78th minute after half-time substitute Georgios Samaras chested down a long ball from Hatem Trabelsi.

“I thought he was outstanding,” said Pearce.

“We have been trying to encourage him for a number of months, if not years, to be more selfish. He tends to pass when he should shoot, although he has an eye for a pass, which is his forte.

“Once he becomes a bit more selfish and says, ‘’I want a part of the Premiership scene,’ then we might see a player flourish. But if he is forever playing within himself and trying to set up goals for others all the time then he won’t score.”

Pearce, aware it was Ireland’s first goal for City, added: “That probably tells you he has passed more than he should have done. We want him to pass, but when he is in shooting positions he should be looking to try to finish.”

The victory ended a run of three straight defeats for City, who are now five points clear of the relegation zone, while United have lost their two festive fixtures to drop to 17th.

Pearce knows the remainder of the season is going to be a battle, and said: “This was a big result for us, and although I was pleased with our resilience, I wasn’t with the performance.

“I said before the game that given the position that we are in we are going to have to scrap for 19 games to get results —– now it’‘s 18 games. There’s more ability in our dressing room than we are showing but any illusions people had that we would gatecrash the European party, then those three defeats we suffered have dispelled that.”

United peppered the City goal either side of Ireland’s winner, but were denied by a combination of sure goalkeeping from Nicky Weaver and some superb defending.

However, there were three handball decisions that dominated the first half, with referee Mark Clattenburg waving away the penalty appeals.

The first of those was when Micah Richards used both hands to block a Claude Davis strike, while United captain Chris Morgan blocked a Darius Vassell effort.

The most blatant, however, was when United right-back Rob Kozluk flicked a Richards header off the line with his left hand. According to United manager Neil Warnock, Clattenburg was made aware of that error by a member of the television media at half-time.

That incensed Warnock, who said: “That shouldn’t have been allowed to happen in the tunnel. The referee then goes and tells Kozluk he’s lucky to get away with it. It’s so unprofessional.

“Unfortunately, the TV people forgot to mention a penalty we should also have had. I don’t think a referee should be mentally tried with statements like that at half-time.”

SHEFF UTD: Kenny, Kozluk, Morgan, Davis (Bromby 68), Geary (Armstrong 26), Gillespie, Jagielka, Tonge, Stephen Quinn, Webber (Nade 76), Hulse.

MAN CITY: Weaver, Richards, Dunne, Onuoha (Jordan 85), Distin, Trabelsi, Barton, Dabo, Ireland, Vassell (Miller 90), Corradi (Samaras 46).

Referee: M Clattenburg (Co Durham).