SOCCER:STEVE BRUCE takes his team to Anfield today accompanied by a sense of relief that Roy Hodgson rather than Rafael Benitez will be occupying the home dugout.

Sunderland’s manager is no fan of his former Liverpool counterpart. To put it mildly.

“I know for a fact we won’t have all the antics we had with Rafa, what with his ways and his carry-ons,” said Bruce.

He and Benitez were never close but fell out spectacularly over the latter’s mischievous pursuit of the former Sunderland forward Kenwyne Jones on a mooted, but never completed, loan deal last season.

Even though Jones is now at Stoke City, the issue still rankles with Bruce who believes the Spaniard unsettled the centre forward.

“I thought Rafa Benitez’s behaviour to us last season was an absolute disgrace,” he said, shaking his head. “What he did over Kenwyne . . . But I’ll certainly be having a drink, probably a glass of nice red, with Roy Hodgson after the game.

“I really hope Roy does very, very well at Anfield. But I know one thing – he’ll definitely conduct himself better than the previous Liverpool manager.”

Hodgson is considered to be under pressure following a rocky start to his new life on Merseyside but Bruce believes the former Fulham manager’s critics should look closely at the legacy he was bequeathed by Benitez.

“Roy inherited a very difficult job,” he said. “I’d expect that, with all the money Rafa spent at Liverpool, Roy would have thought he’d have been left more strength in depth than he’s got.”

The well-travelled Hodgson belongs to a traditional managerial breed, which Bruce heartily approves of.

“Roy’s old school and I still think the old school is the best way,” he said. “Old-school managers have something about them, a certain respect for others.”

In contrast he regards Benitez as decidedly new-school and is convinced that, in time, Liverpool will benefit from a reversion to more gentlemanly ways.

Bruce expects to hear the usual Liverpool taunts of “fat head” today. The former Manchester United centre half is well used to it. “I think the Liverpool supporters are trying to tell me I haven’t got a beautiful head,” he said. “But the strange thing is my mum thinks I’m lovely.”