Pearce left in no doubt as to where the buck will stop

BAD results, not bad players, send teams down. A lack of collective consistency rather than a shortage of individual ability tends to be the reason clubs are relegated.

By no stretch of the imagination could Matthew Le Tissier, Stuart Pearce or Gary McAllister be described as poor footballers. Yet all three will be playing in the Nationwide League next season unless Southampton, Nottingham Forest and Coventry City survive or they move to other Premiership sides. And in the case of Pearce, for one, the latter recourse seems highly unlikely.

Southampton's 3-1 victory at the City Ground on Saturday has enhanced the prospect of the old forester once more having to hack a way out of the First Division undergrowth. Forest now have to wait a fortnight before they play again, by which time they may have spread their roots at the bottom.

On Saturday's evidence the position would not be a false one. They were second best to Southampton in practically every aspect of the game, slow starting. We didn't do well enough to get the ball back, and when we did we gave it away again. We've got to play better than we did today." Dave Bassett, Forest's general manager, might have been stating the obvious, but it needed to be said.

Southampton won impressively, but even if they had won unimpressively the points would have been equally valuable. They have bought themselves time, not redemption. Significantly, however, the next four of their last six fixtures are, like Saturday's match, against fellow strugglers.

How is one to account for a Nottingham side which had appeared confidently at ease with itself in drawing 1-1 with Liverpool, reappearing as a petrified Forest three weeks later? Or a Southampton defence looking so solid on Saturday after spending most of the season doing convincing imitations of a meringue.

"When we defend well we're a decent team," said Graeme Souness, Southampton's manager, "but the key word is consistency. If we had been able consistently to defend as well as we did today we wouldn't be in this situation."

There was a little more substance to this statement than hypothetical distinctions between aunts and uncles. Southampton, as they showed on Saturday, are quite a good passing side, but for this to be effective a sound defensive platform is essential.

Yet for once Southampton won in spite of not because of Le Tissier, who in apparent deference to Forest's feelings decided to attend the match disguised as a tree. For more than an hour he creaked and rustled in the wind before giving way to Mike Evans, a recent £500,000 buy from Plymouth, who proceeded to score twice in the last four minutes, assuring Southampton of victory.

"He's the type of centre forward who never gives you a moment's peace," said Souness. Certainly Evans took his goals slickly, exploiting a weak headed back pass from Pearce and then running half the length of the field to beat Mark Crossley again after Eyal Berkovic had sent him clear.

Southampton's opening goal, the moment Forest felt the icy fingers of relegation reaching for their souls, came in the eighth minute when Jim Magilton unleashed a shot from 35 yards that caught Crossley unsighted. Forest glimpsed redemption only briefly, when Pearce's penalty, after Alan Neilson had brought down Pierre Van Hooijdonk, made the score 2-1 before Evans struck a second time.

The City Ground has not suffered such a depressing afternoon since Brian Clough made his tearful farewell as the team went down in 1993, and then Forest came straight back under Frank Clark. Wherever they end up this time some drastic rebuilding will be necessary, but just who will be site foreman it is hard to tell.

Pearce is caretaker manager until the end of the season and Bassett made it clear after Saturday's defeat that he would not be held responsible for what happened before then. "Look, I came here with eight or nine games to go," he protested. "I'm not a magician. Nottingham Forest were already in shit street.

"Stuart picks the teams, does the coaching and decides the tactics. I came as general manager. I'm not involved unless I'm asked."

Certainly Pearce was not ducking his responsibilities. "You take everyone's bad performances home with you as a manager," he said. "If you yourself turn in a bad performance and give goals away it's very difficult to point fingers at anybody else.

"I've got a lot of pride at this football club and at the moment I'm shouldering the responsibility for the whole lot."

For the time being, then, the buck is stopping at Bassett's door merely to ask the way.