Jack Pearce's Bognor Regis Town legacy must be celebrated - but how?

So his decision to stand down, after his second spell in charge of the team, is a big deal – even if it was not a total surprise.

He made the announcement in an emotional speech at last Friday night’s fans’ forum at the club which ended in him receiving a standing ovation from those present.

And the reaction to the news, even though he is a man whose role as manager has divided opinion in the fan-base, has been hugely respectful of the service he has given the club over five decades.

Suggestions have included naming the new stand after him – and even naming the whole ground after him.

Knowing him, he’ll not be keen for such gestures to be bestowed.

Future of Rocks management team debated.

But it’s worth heeding the words of Robbie Blake, who has been his right-hand man for the past four years and now takes over as manager, at least until the end of the season.

Blake said: “Jack Pearce, for this football club, should be celebrated.

“The bigger picture is just what he has done or this football club. He’s been at the forefront to ensure that this club, with the ground in the fantastic shape it is, is on a great footing – he is an amazing man with so much knowledge of the game.

“He is so trusted within the game and we’re very fortune throughout the years – 52 years he has been at the club now – to have such a special guy to be associated with this club.

“Now it’s about celebrating him and appreciating him and having that respect for him. Like I told the players in the dressing room before Saturday’s game, he has touched everyone in this dressing room in terms of his heart and his commitment and he has has always given players the chance to play.

“He has been simply fantastic and amazing and I really I can’t speak highly enough of him in terms of as a coach, as a manager and as a person.”

Pearce will continue to work more hours than most for the Rocks – on anything from off-field projects and player contracts to scouting missions.

Who knows, he may even fancy reclaiming his old raffle-ticket-selling tour of the ground at the odd game.

He told the Observer he was not sad to be standing down; he just wanted supporters to appreciate the challenges that faced a club at the Rocks level that did not have a major benefactor to call on.

Pearce has often been at pains to put into perspective Bognor’s rise through the divisions in the time he has been at the Nye Camp, when many Sussex clubs have gone the other way or even gone out of business, or close to it, and had to bounce back.

It is no secret he has been frustrated at their failure to mount a serious Isthmian play-off bid this season. Soft goals conceded and injuries, in equal measure, have left him tearing his hair out, and may well have speeded up his decision to stand down.

Pearce first arrived at Nyewood Lane in the 1970-71 as a keen young player. Within five years he had been persuaded to become player-manager of a club that was then struggling financially. By the mid-1980s they were reaching the FA Cup proper rounds regularly – even beating Swansea 3-1 on Nyewood Lane’s most famous night – and success continued throughout the 90s and the early 2000s, when their first of two spells at step two of the non-league pyramid arrived.

Pearce first stood down as team boss in 2007, taking a role in running the club off the field, but returned to the dressing room in 2017, since when success has been harder to come by.

But as he goes back to other duties, he does so with the club in a healthy, stable state, and that’s the legacy that this unique football figure should – as Robbie Blake says – be celebrated for.