Sunderland, Bruce maintain focus

Steve Bruce reckons it’s a case of ‘now or never’ for Sunderland if they are to hold on to hopes of overhauling Liverpool this season.

The two sides meet this Sunday in the English Premier League at the Stadium of Light, with Bruce still hopeful of an end-of-season charge from his players after a recent run of poor form.

And with Bolo Zenden, Nedum Onuoha, Lee Cattermole and Danny Welbeck all expected to return to the squad for Liverpool, the Sunderland manager could well be proven right.

But the Reds are four points clear of their hosts, having leapfrogged their opponents into the sixth-spot Sunderland occupied for the opening month of 2011. Bruce has recognised the importance of Sunday’s game.

“We haven’t given up hope of catching Liverpool, and if we can beat them on Sunday then we are in with a chance of finishing above them,” he said. “I think we’ve got a real chance of a good result this weekend.”

“We’ve got injured players coming back, we’ve got home advantage, we’ve got a sell-out crowd and we’ve got our good home form, so we’ll genuinely have a crack at it.:

Bruce says his players have been buoyed by their 0-0 draw at Arsenal on Saturday and feels the result will bolster confidence ahead of the clash with Liverpool.

“After such a horrible run of defeats, taking a point off Arsenal was a massive result,” he said.

“It was important because we got a little bit of confidence back, and it will do us a world of good – certainly I expect it to give the players confidence going into this Sunday’s game.”

“So let’s see if we can get something against Liverpool to spark us off for the last eight games of the season, which include four or five home matches against sides we’ve got an outstanding chance of getting three points against.”