Heskey eyes Rush's record

Emile Heskey has set his sights on joining Ian Rush in the record books by helping Birmingham to achieve Carling Cup glory this season as they prepare for tomorrow’s daunting home quarter-final tie with Manchester United.

Liverpool legend Rush picked up a competition record five League Cup winners medals when at Anfield and Heskey is only one shy of that figure.

He triumphed with Leicester in 1997 and 2000 as well as being on the losing side in the 1999 final and, after moving to Merseyside, also lifted the trophy in 2001 – at Birmingham’s expense – and 2002.

The 27-year-old has already equalled the achievement of Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, Kenny Dalglish and Sammy Lee in winning the League Cup on four occasions.

He is poised to return to the Blues side after missing the 4-1 demolition by Manchester City at Eastlands to be with his partner after she went into labour.

Heskey said: “As a youngster I used to watch Rushie play whenever I could. The likes of Ian Rush, John Barnes and John Aldridge were the guys I always looked up to.

“To be in the same bracket of Rushie, in terms of winning League Cup medals, would be brilliant. He is a living legend in Liverpool and in football in general.

“I had the pleasure of being trained by him when I was at Anfield and he used to come in and do sessions. To join him on five winners medals would be wonderful.”

Heskey added: “You’ve got to take things one step at a time and we are not in the final yet. We know United have got a lot of stick after going out of Europe.

“They will want to keep people quiet and there is no better way to do that than winning a trophy. But the League Cup has always been good to me.

“When I was at Leicester we got to three finals when nobody fancied us and we won two of them against Middlesbrough and Tottenham Hotspur.”

Blues boss Steve Bruce is hoping for a positive response from his players after a display against Manchester City that he labelled “pathetic” and “inept”.

But he also knows that United will be desperate to collect some silverware after their Champions League exit and trailing Chelsea by nine points in the Barclays Premiership title race.

He said: “There is never a good time to play Man United because you know what you are going to get. It’s a fantastic cup tie but they are at their best when they are wounded and come out with that fighting spirit which makes them the great team they are.

“They think that the world is against them and they come out and produce a performance and it will be tough. They have just gone out of Europe so I am convinced they will want to try and win this competition, that’s for sure.

“Whatever team they put out, when Man United come to town, it is going to be a tough, tough game but one that we will relish and we will look forward to the challenge.”

Maik Taylor will return between the posts for the suspended Nico Vaesen and Colin Doyle has been recalled from his loan spell at Millwall to act as back-up.

Martin Taylor is also poised to be recalled, possibly at the expense of right-back Olivier Tebily who looked particularly out of sorts against Stuart Pearce’s side.