The 4-1 thumping of Birmingahm last Saturday appeased Pearce after the sorry defeat at West Brom, but he wants to see them build on that at Wigan on Boxing Day.
"I don't really want to understate it, but I had the hump this week!" he told the City website.
"That performance last week really irritated me, we asked the players to up everything from last week, and they certainly did that.
"They came out of the starting gates like they meant business in everything they did," Pearce added. "But I feel that we have got to get a touch more hard-nosed still, even at 3-0 we have got to pass the ball better and kill teams off.
"We should have kept a clean sheet and run them to death by passing more over the pitch. It was a good result, same as Charlton, but sandwiched in between that was a rather poor performance at West Brom, and that's something we have got to look at and eradicate."