STUART Pearce hopes Nottingham Forest will learn a frustrating lesson from their lacklustre 0-0 draw with Brighton.
The Reds boss was disappointed with the lack of cutting edge and attacking threat shown by his side at the City Ground.
And, while Pearce was pleased to see Forest extended their unbeaten start in the Championship, he warned his players that they need to improve considerably ahead of a difficult trip to Wigan on Tuesday night.
The Reds might have snatched a narrow win at the City Ground, with skipper Michael Mancienne left with a free header late in the game – but the defender sent his effort bouncing over the bar.
"We had a chance late on, to win the game through Michael Mancienne's header, which we did not take – and that probably summed the game up," said Pearce. "If we had scored that, we would have taken the three points happily. But the players know that the performance levels need to be improved on massively.
"We did not do enough going forward to hurt the opposition and we have to learn that lesson. Brighton had a passing game and kept possession well – for far too long, in my opinion.
"That will happen at the City Ground this season – teams will be happy to take a point here and move on. But I don't think we had enough energy in the team – and quite a few of our players did not play in midweek, so there was no excuse.
"We needed more energy in and out of possession. Our front four just did not hurt the opposition as much as they have done this season."
Forest suffered a blow before kick off when David Vaughan was injured in freak fashion during the warm up, leaving him a doubt for Tuesday's game.
"He got struck during the warm up. He was not expecting it and the ball hit him on his heel and jarred his hamstring. He had a slight hamstring strain as a result, which he was trying to stretch off. But we thought it would be prudent to pull him off," said Pearce.
"We looked after him a little bit in midweek. He was outstanding for 45 minutes at Tottenham, so we pulled him off then to make sure he was fully fit for this game. Obviously the best laid plans fell on their face, I am afraid."
