FA Cup: Nigel Pearson targets Premier League points after Leicester knock out Newcastle
Saturday 3 January 2015 19:48, UK
Leicester manager Nigel Pearson insists he doesn't care for good performances between now and the end of the season, as long as his team pick up enough points to stay up.
Pearson was speaking after the Foxes won for the second time in three games, seeing off Newcastle 1-0 in the FA Cup third round thanks to Leonardo Ulloa’s first-half goal.
Having recently come off the back of 10 defeats in the last 11 Premier League games, Pearson was pleased to see his side maintain their momentum.
He said: "On the back of two decent results in the league, it was important for us to carry that on. The Premier League is the priority but when you get a couple of decent results, on the back of the run we were coming off, it was important to get the result rather than the performance.
"We both had to utilise our squads, which made fluency difficult and perhaps didn't make for a great spectacle. But it gave some players pitch time, a chance to perform, which is going to be important for us going forward into the rest of January and into February and March.
"Ultimately for us the next two or three months is about picking up enough wins, not about performances."
Pearson, caretaker boss at Newcastle in 2007 and 2008, said of his former club: "Expectations up there are huge and the potential is huge. But sometimes it's not easy to make progress when expectations are what they are.
"I don't know what goes on at boardroom level but I know John Carver and Newcastle is his club, if you like, and he has the club's best interests at heart."
