Former England left-back Stuart Pearce is returning to action at the age of 53 to aid a non-league team dubbed “the worst in England.”
Longford AFC of the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two in southwest England are bottom of their league, having lost 19 out of 19 with a goal difference of minus-180.
Now they hope that Pearce, nicknamed “Psycho” for his tough-tackling style, can help them turn the tide.
Photo: AFP
“Direct Line [Insurance] are running the Direct Fix campaign and they asked me if I’d help a team christened the worst in England, from a playing point of view and helping with morale around the place,” Pearce said on Thursday.
“I’ve not played a competitive game since I left Manchester City 14 years ago so it’ll be quite interesting to see how it goes. I think the adrenaline will get me through it.”
Pearce, however, was not confident his new side would beat the drop.
“The manager is fairly upbeat. He thinks he can get out of the relegation problem they’re in, bearing in mind they’ve got no points and the average goals they ship per game is 10,” he said. “The results have improved slightly in recent weeks, but they’re still working to an average of 10 goals over a season, which isn’t great. They’ve got the second-from-bottom team twice and are six points adrift of them so they fancy their chances of avoiding relegation. I didn’t want to burst his bubble to suggest that, in my opinion, that probably wouldn’t be the case.”
Pearce is set to make his debut against Smiths Athletic at Longford Playing Field on Saturday next week.
And he insisted that the nerves he will feel then will not be anything new.
“People ask me if I get nervous playing football and the answer is yes, I’ve always got nervous,” said Pearce, who made over 500 appearances for Nottingham Forest.
“They’ll be expecting me to do things I probably can’t do anymore. I’ll have to manage the expectations of the manager and the rest of the boys.”
Pearce was a renowned penalty-taker at the height of his playing career and, asked if he would take a spot-kick for his new club, said: “The bottom line is, I’m on 99 career goals and still looking for my 100th. It’d be a wonderful place to score it.”
Capped 78 times by England, Pearce started his career in non-league soccer with Wealdstone, northwest of London, and said the experience he gained in such matches was invaluable.
“I played 250 non-league games before I got the opportunity to be a pro footballer,” he said. “It was great to me and I’m glad I took the journey I did rather than be associated with a pro club and come through as a starlet. I find that I’m probably a lot more grounded than some of the individuals I’ve had to play alongside over my career. I was an electrician by trade and worked in a warehouse for years prior to that so I did it the hard way, but the better way I think.”
Longford manager Nick Dawe added: “We needed a decent left-back so Stuart Pearce is perfect. It’ll be a huge boost to the players’ morale. They’ve been through the mill this season so if nothing else, it’ll make their day.”
Pearce was part of the England squad that reached the last four of the World Cup in 1990, and the side that was eliminated at the same stage of Euro 1996.
His playing career included spells at Newcastle United, Manchester City, West Ham and Coventry, and he went into coaching following his retirement.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but