Stuart Pearce has over 19 years of experience under his managerial belt but revealed to TalkSport that he made a calamitous error in his first ever appearance as a manager.

At the time of the incident Pearce was a player/coach at Nottingham Forest after the resignation of permanent manager Frank Clark.

The blunder came in a match against Arsenal and Pearce admitted he had spent hours thinking over the team making sure that everything was correct.

However, despite his meticulous planning the night before a few eyebrows were raised before the team sheets were handed in he revealed to TalkSport.

Pearce said: “After four hours of putting all the names on a piece of paper, shuffling them around and shuffling formations.

“I came up with a final squad and I sat back and said ‘that’s my team’. A set of eyes at the time said ‘have you dropped Mark Crossley for this game?’

“I said of course not as he’s the goalie. They said have a look at that 11 again, there’s no goalkeeper. 

“We won 2-1 the next day by the way.”

Pearce can thank Alf-Inge Haaland for the win, father of Erling Haaland, as they came back from 1-0 down to win the game.

Thankfully for Pearce his managerial sense improved vastly, and he has now gone on to manage Manchester City, England U21's and even Great Britain at the Olympic Games.

The Verdict 

Every manager makes mistakes from time to time but forgetting to name a goalkeeper for your first game in charge has got to be up there with the biggest clangers yet.

It probably happens more than we think though, possibly not forgetting to name a goalkeeper but certainly things along that line.

The fact that Pearce and his side went on to win the game despite the blunder indicated that he was always going to be a top manager at some stage, it could have been very different though if the blunder had not been pointed out before the game though.