Tuesday 19 May 2015 14:00, UK
Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson admitted he had his own moments of doubt as to whether his side would beat the drop this season.
The Foxes turned around their campaign by taking 19 points from eight games - as many as they had achieved in their previous 29 fixtures - to ensure their top-flight safety with a point against Sunderland at the weekend.
His side beat the drop with a game to spare, at home to already relegated-QPR on Saturday.
But Pearson admits that he was not always so sure of securing their Premier League status as they encountered defeats despite playing well and were left languishing at the foot of the table for 140 days.
He told Sky Sports News HQ: "I've had moments, of course. I'd be lying if I was going to stand here and say at no point did it cross my mind. We've had some really difficult times this season. One of the hard bits is when the players have to go over the performance when they've played well and the result has gone against us.
"We've had some pretty bad runs this season in terms of picking points up but I can honestly say throughout it we've played with an intensity and desire which has always been there and that's probably one of the big things that's kept the players going.
"Coupled with the fact that we've not really been on the receiving end of a real hiding, even against Manchester United when they really outplayed us in the first half and being 3-0 down coming in at half-time, it's important that you get some sort of positive outcome out of the game and in our second-half performance, there were things to be positive about.
"But all in all, it's nice to go into this last weekend with less pressure."
We've had some pretty bad runs this season in terms of picking points up but I can honestly say throughout it we've played with an intensity and desire which has always been there.
Pearson says he and his players want to finish the season strongly, but admitted that he would not always want to set survival as a target going into start of a Premier League campaign.
Despite that, given their earlier league position, the Leicester boss said he would need time to reflect on whether he considered his side's survival as his greatest achievement as a coach.
He said: "I'll have to sit back and think about it because we are still in the season, we've still got a game to go. It's important we finish the season as well as we can. I think the players are like-minded - they want to finish the season on a positive note.
"The big benefit of securing our safety against Sunderland is we've got a weekend to look forward to in which we're concentrating very much on our performance knowing that we'll be playing Premier League football next year and that's a big bonus for us.
"It is a great achievement in the context of the season. I wouldn't necessarily want to set out at the start of any year and say avoiding relegation is what we're aiming to achieve because I think that would setting targets pretty low.
"There would be another way of looking at it by saying you've got to be realistic but I do still believe that we've got better as the season has gone on. I think our players have performed pretty well throughout the season and it has been difficult to sometimes keep everybody thinking positively with the number of poor results that we had but we got there in the end."
Pearson has been caught up in a couple of off-field incidents during the season - including most notably a bizarre argument with a journalist at a press conference - but says he won't change who he is for next season.
He added: "I think you always learn as you go along. Having the capacity to learn is the key thing and then the ability to adapt as you go along. Fundamentally, I won't change; I am what I am.
"I've been asked this many times - I don't think I've ever been any different, it just so happens in Premier League situations there is a greater scrutiny and there is more interest in some of the more obtuse things that you say but whether I'm going to change fundamentally, I don't think that will be the case but you learn as you go along and that's the most important thing."
Pearson said time will tell as to whether Robert Huth makes his loan switch from Stoke permanent and Esteban Cambiasso signs on for another season, but he praised both for their contribution to the Foxes' campaign.
He said: "There's always considerations to be made and with regard to Robert Huth, as I've already pointed out in previous press conferences, until the clubs have had dialogue I don't think it's right for me to be talking too much about that but clearly he has had a very positive effect on our season.
"With regards to Esteban, he's aware of how I think and what we want to do as a football club but these things sometimes take a bit of time and I'm sure he needs a bit of time to reflect as well so all these things will be addressed.
"It's not just a case of the season is drawing to an end and we need to start different processes; we are always going through ways of developing the squad and having the next stage of the club’s development in mind is always a big thing for us.
"There are things we need to sort out between now and the end of the season and then it's just an ongoing process. I don’t see there being a huge difference to any other end of season; we’ve got a strategy in place as we have done in most end-of-season situations so hopefully we can have another positive close season."
