Bruce safe - until end of season

STEVE BRUCE has been assured by Birmingham co-owner David Sullivan that his job is safe “for the foreseeable future” despite the humiliation of the club’s worst defeat in 48 years.

Blues were hammered 7-0 by Liverpool in Tuesday’s FA Cup quarter-final at St Andrews - an experience described by Bruce as the lowest point of his managerial career.

But Bruce will remain in charge at least until the summer, with Sullivan admitting it would be “absolute madness” to relieve him of his duties at this time.

Said Sullivan: “What can you say about Tuesday night? It was appalling and we, the board, are as gutted as everybody else.

“These are real dark days for the club and we all need to rally round. With regard to the manager, he is not going to be sacked this season. He won’t be sacked for the foreseeable future.”

Meanwhile, Steven Gerrard issued a derby warning to local rivals Everton as boss Rafael Benitez insisted he never lost faith in his strikers despite their goal famine.

The Liverpool boss has now seen his side scored 15 goals in three matches in a week, after managing only 15 in their previous 16 matches.

The tide has turned dramatically for Peter Crouch, Fernando Morientes, Djibril Cisse and Robbie Fowler, who prior to last week’s 5-1 win over Fulham had scored just one goal between them in 51 hours of playing time.

A 3-1 win at Newcastle followed on Sunday before Tuesday night’s 7-0 mauling of Birmingham to reach the FA Cup semi-finals, their 33rd appearance at this stage - including replays - in their history.

But for Gerrard, the chance to make a psychological point with Saturday’s 203rd Mersey derby against Everton next up, was not going to be lost. He said: “I was listening to some of the Everton players saying they were happy to be coming to Anfield full of confidence, but it’s the same for us now, and that makes the derby a lot more interesting!

“We’ve been getting criticised for not scoring goals of late but hopefully we have proved the critics wrong. We were really pleased with our performance at Birmingham.

“Nothing has changed in terms of why we’re suddenly scoring goals. I just think we’re getting more luck now. We’ve always been playing well but the strikers hadn’t been having much luck. Now they’re starting to go in and we’re delighted.”

Crouch has now scored four in three games, and has an impressive record of 12 goals in his last 24 matches for the club, having suffered much criticism for not scoring in his first 18 games.

The change in fortunes for the front men seems almost a private showdown now between players - Crouch apart - whose futures are in serious doubt at Anfield. Morientes, Cisse and Fowler could all be on their way out. Fowler is battling to win a new contract while Morientes could well return to Spain.

And Ranko Stojic, the Serb agent who negotiated Cisse’s move from Auxerre to Liverpool, has revealed a transfer window move to Spurs was discussed and could well be revived with Benitez believed to be interested in a swap deal with Jermaine Defoe.

Benitez is just delighted the goals are starting to flow again, and claims he never lost confidence in his strikers. He said: “I was happy with the final result but also with the performance of the players. They scored goals.

“Sometimes you cannot score after 30 attempts in a game, this time every time we had a shot we seemed to score. We have quality and I have always believed my strikers were good players, but you always need luck.

“Now I want to see more goals right to the end of the season, we want to get to the FA Cup final and finish runners-up, those are our aims now.”

Benitez was also delighted with the return of midfielder Mohamed Sissoko, just a month after the shocking eye injury it initially was feared could end his career.