Bruce takes his side to Merseyside on Sunday hoping to complete a double over the Reds by securing what would be only the Black Cats' third win at Anfield in 50 years. That would represent another major blow to Liverpool's hopes of winning the race for fourth place with Tottenham, who are four points better off having played a game fewer, the current occupants. Bruce found it tough managing expectation on Wearside after a promising start to the campaign, but he knows that pressure is multiplied several times with tomorrow's opponents amid an ongoing debate over the respective futures of Benitez and star men Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. He said: "That's what the job is. When you take on jobs like that, or you take on any job in the Premier League, it's very difficult. "It's one of the difficult parts of it, but it's part and parcel of it." Sunderland will run out at Anfield having arrested their depressing winter slump with a run of nine games which has brought just one defeat. But their record at Liverpool is dreadful and, although they beat Benitez's men 1-0 at the Stadium of Light in October, courtesy of Darren Bent's infamous beachball-assisted strike, their manager knows they will have their work cut out. Bruce said: "I think they have won seven on the bounce. Whenever you go to Anfield, let's not kid ourselves, when you are taking on Liverpool no matter who you are, you are in for a game and a half. "Our record there is pretty abysmal - twice in 50 years, we have won - so we know what we have got to do. "Anybody going there, unless you are a really big team, a draw away from home at Anfield is always a good result. "But the one thing I have learnt from being here is we are better going and having a go, and we have done that repeatedly away from home. "I don't think you can send out a team to just go and try to get a draw. "We have got to go and take the game to them, have a right good crack at them, and if we are good enough on the day, like we were the other night against Villa and we were against Manchester United, we will give Liverpool a very good game." Striker Kenwyne Jones, the subject of intense speculation that he was to join the Reds on loan in January, could return from a hip flexor injury, but defender John Mensah is a doubt with a hamstring problem.
