Daniel Taylor hears how Manchester City manager StuartPierce has impacted on the club

There is a story about Stuart Pearce that Alex Ferguson, perhaps understandably, would rather forget. In the days when Pearce was the vein-popping, fist-clenching captain of Nottingham Forest, Ferguson's desire to sign the England defender saw him drive to the City Ground on a whim only for Brian Clough to lock his office, pull the curtains and send out a message, via his secretary Carol, that the cricket was on.

Ferguson, not a man accustomed to being kept waiting in a blustery car-park, stayed for three hours before heading home, presumably the colour of a ripe tomato.

Today, 15 years later, Pearce and Ferguson will be in opposite dugouts at Old Trafford, the tattooed former punk rocker against the old teacup-thrower from Govan. "This fella would not give me the drippings off the end of his nose and the feeling's mutual," Pearce said yesterday. "And that's what I like about him."

It will be their first battle in a Manchester derby, but Pearce has actually taken on Ferguson as an equal before. On St Stephen's Day, 1996, United were the second team he faced during his brief period as Forest's player-manager.

"We beat Arsenal in my first game but then United came to our place and whacked us 4-0," he recalled. "Afterwards we were walking by the side of the stand to meet the press and he turned to me and said: 'Keep at it, son'." Note the "son".

"I looked at him," said Pearce. "All I could say was, 'you bastard'."

There is, though, mutual respect. Ferguson has spoken at length this week about Pearce's brilliant early work at Manchester City, describing him as "determined and aggressive".

When a new manager takes over there is usually an upturn in results yet Pearce's honeymoon has felt more like a six-month cruise. City are in their best sequence of top-flight results - unbeaten in 12 - since 1977 and the players are forming a steady queue to sing the new man's praises.

"I'd say explained the City captain Richthe biggest difference is that the training under Stuart is more intense," ard Dunne. "If you do fast, high-tempo training every day then it will be reflected on match day. Under Kevin (Keegan), the training was more relaxed, not so intense, and that showed sometimes. Since Stuart has taken over we have moved on."

"We have a manager who is telling us what we can and should achieve," added David James. "We are more organised, we have a set game plan and an idea of where we are going."

Pearce was yesterday named manager of the month for August and the accolades should go some way to compensating him for the sacrifices he has made over the last four years: living in a Manchester hotel while his wife Liz and their two children, Chelsea and Harley Phoenix, are 250 miles away in Wiltshire.

Pearce has grown so accustomed to hotel life he has taken to calling himself Major Gowen, quite apt considering there was a touch of Fawlty Towers about City before his promotion from assistant manager. Danny Mills, for one, has described the Keegan regime as having "lax discipline" and "training of a poor quality".

Under Pearce there has been a shift towards greater professionalism and he leads by example - the first into the training ground at 7am and usually the last to leave. The best bits of Keegan's reign have been retained but the bad habits have been eradicated.

"(Pearce) was intimidating as a player, but he's different as a manager," says Dunne, reflecting on a 10-point haul from their opening four games. "It's always encouragement that he shouts, which is a nice change from some of the old-school managers I have known. All you hear with them is, 'don't do this' and 'don't do that' but Stuart is totally different. He's more likely to say 'unlucky' than have a go at you."

The exception was when Joey Barton tangled with a young Everton fan, then Dunne, during the club's pre-season trip to Thailand. Pearce's first reaction was to let Barton spend the night in a Bangkok police cell, then offload him. He was talked round and has subsequently concentrated his efforts on teaching a serial offender the error of his ways.

Perhaps Pearce remembered the time Clough came out of his office to find him grappling with his Forest team-mate Tommy Gaynor in a row about complimentary tickets. Pearce, certainly no fan of Liverpool, also had to be pulled away from Steve McMahon during one trip away with England.

Embarking on a career as an electrician for Brent Council, Pearce even accumulated three convictions - one for being drunk and disorderly ("I wasn't drunk"), one for borrowing an abandoned Ford Escort when he and his mates could not get home from a nightclub in Acton and one for criminal damage when, drunk, he climbed the traffic lights on Wembley High Street and "lifted the top off".

Barton has also had a magnetic attraction to trouble but he has impressed with his mature performances since Pearce made him attend Tony Adams's Sporting Chance clinic. The manager has shown paternal instincts that, so far, have brought the midfielder into line.

"He didn't have to do what he's done for me," says a grateful Barton. "I've got the greatest admiration for him, not just as a manager but also as a man."

One suspects that Pearce sees many of his own attributes in a grafter such as Barton. This is a manager who has never been afraid to stand up for himself, a man who commands respect and does not scare easily. In his playing days, Pearce showed his respect for the Kop at Anfield by giving them, "a girlie wave, just to wind them up".

One certainty is that he will not be fazed going to Old Trafford.

"When people ask if I find certain places intimidating I say, 'behave yourself'. The more intimidation, the more it means to win. I can remember going to Derby when I was at Forest and they were spitting on me and chucking coins whenever I took throw-ins. And that was just the old ladies. I loved it."