Nottingham Forest 1 - 1 Manchester City

	Kevin Horlock and Shaun Goater celebrate for Man City (AlexLivesey/Allsport)

Seldom can a visiting player have received such a reception as that accorded the former England captain, who played more than 500 games for Forest and was also their caretaker manager.

The draw keeps both Nottingham Forest and Manchester City outside the First Division's top six, which will be the minimum of their ambitions come the end of the season, and City manager Kevin Keegan said: 'Any point away from home is a decent one but I do not think either team really got going, so I am a little bit disappointed.

'In the end we got the point that both teams probably deserved. It was a strange goal. I do not think it will get goal of the season but people make mistakes. If you are going to play the ball out of defence like that, you will give away the occasional goal.'

Keegan was speaking about City's equaliser after Forest goalkeeper Darren Ward had got in a terrible mix-up with defender Riccardo Scimeca, allowing Shaun Goater to score.

Nottingham Forest manager Paul Hart was sympathetic to Ward, however, and refused to criticise his goalkeeper. Hart said: 'Darren has produced two excellent saves. He has been absolutely terrific this season.

'We very rarely kick it out at the back and sometimes misunderstandings happen. But we are not going to change. I am slightly disappointed with the result. We had long spells when we were very good and we defended very well when we had to.

'City changed their shape to cope with us, which is a compliment. I think we probably should have won the game 1-0.'

That the game will be remembered for a defensive howler is somehow unfitting to Pearce, considering the sterling service he gave Forest. It was certain that he would be welcomed back warmly and he was happy to remember the good times.

'The people of Nottingham were extremely kind to me over the 12 years I served the club and those years will stick with me for the rest of my life,' he said. For the size of club we were, we had a lot of success.

'There were a lot of players who grew up together at the club and I think the fans appreciated the endeavour and sweat I put in when I was wearing their shirt. We had our ups and downs but we had more good times than bad and the important thing was that we got through them together.'

So it proved, as a sell- out crowd stood to applaud probably the most popular player in the club's history and Pearce ran toward the Trent End with arms outstretched to milk their adulation.

And to show his audience that some things will always be the same, his first contribution was a crunching tackle from behind on David Prutton, and even that brought chuckles rather than protests from the knowing crowd.

Yet within a minute, Forest were in front as Gareth Williams, the third teenage member of the home side's highly-rated midfield, found Jim Brennan overlapping down the left. City goalkeeper Nicky Weaver could only parry the full back's cross and Chris Bart-Williams volleyed home.

But Forest handed back the advantage within a hundred seconds when Ward and defender Scimeca left the ball for each other and Goater ran in to round Ward and side-foot home his 16th goal in 17 games this season.

Scimeca had been linked with a move to City before the match in a story described by Forest manager Hart as an 'unsavoury tactic' by the Maine Road outfit designed to unsettle the former England Under 21 defender.

If that was indeed the case, the City bench must have been rubbing their hands with glee as he enjoyed a shaky start. And he was almost made to pay again as his poor clearance set up Ali Bernabia, who failed to control.

Ward made up for his earlier error on the stroke of half-time, though, with a brilliant one-handed save to stop Kevin Horlock's 20-yard shot.

In the second half City went within inches of taking the lead when Richard Dunne fired in a cross-shot which Goater just failed to convert. In the end, it was just left to Pearce to run to the Forest crowd and throw his shirt to one of his admirers at the final whistle.

What Forest would give to have his kind again.