Stuart Pearce

Stuart Pearce is determined that the 1-0 win over Aston Villa on Wednesday evening is not the end of a losing run but the start of a winning one.

City finally cracked an unenviable sequence of six successive Premiership defeats with a single goal victory over the struggling Midlanders and the manager felt it was fully deserved.

But he admitted that he had felt the pressure of his side's slide out of European contention.

"Football is a great game when you are winning but it's awful when you are losing, I have found that out over the last few weeks," he declared - the relief written all over his face.

"I have told the lads that this victory is not the end of the story but the beginning of a four match unbeaten run.

"It is great to see some smiles in the dressing room again. Now hopefully we will grow in confidence and have a big finish to the season. Confidence is a precious commodity in football and you could see it returning to our players in the second half.

"We probably didn't play as well as we have done in other matches away from home this season but we deserved the three points."

The Blues boss admitted that the lack of points had weighed on his mind.

"Make no mistake, the run we have been on, the pressure has been on everyone from me right the way down to the youngest player at this club," he went on. "I am the first to say, judge us by results and we have been on a poor, poor run.

"But you have to keep a balanced view of what has happened and credit to the players they scrapped away hard and by the end of the match deserved the victory. It is just a pity it took us seven games.

The second half improvement against Aston villa coincided with the withdrawal of expensive signing Greek international Georgios Samaras and Pearce confirmed afterwards that the striker was not injured.

"It was a tactical decision and it is my job to make those," he said. "I felt Antoine (Sibierski) might cause them one or two more problems.

"There are three games left and now I want nine points. We have to build on what we did last night in the second half when some of our passing and movement was as good as it has been all season"