WHEN he sat down at home to pick his first team as Nottingham Forest's caretaker manager, Stuart Pearce eventually came up with 11 names and proudly showed them to his wife. "Lovely dear," she said, "but there's no goalkeeper."

Seven games later and the England full back appears to have mastered the job sufficiently to agree to stay in the post until the end of the season. Pearce has only said yes after using those games to gauge whether he liked the job and whether his dual role of player/ manager would threaten his prized place in the national squad.

But during an hour long meeting with the Forest chairman, Irving Korn, yesterday morning, Pearce outlined his personal demands to continue in the post until the summer.

His agreement to stay presumes that the England coach Glenn Hoddle has already assured him off his continuing place in the international squad, with the party to face Italy for the World Cup qualifier at Wembley on February 12th to be announced next week. But Pearce's long term future as manager also depends on who wins the takeover battle for the club.

Certainly Pearce's leadership has dramatically improved Forest's fortunes on the pitch since Frank Clark resigned in December. The team has collected 13 points out of 18 in the league to move out of the Premiership bottom three.

Pearce (30) has a huge incentive apart from his fierce pride to keep Forest up a £200,000 personal bonus.