KENNY DALGLISH has warned Sir Alex Ferguson he would be wasting his time embarking on psychological warfare ahead of the Scottish duo renewing rivalries this weekend.

Liverpool entertain Manchester United on Sunday afternoon aiming to put a significant dent in the championship challenge of their bitter North West rivals.

It is the first time Dalglish has locked horns with Ferguson at Anfield since replacing Roy Hodgson in the hot-seat the day before the 1-0 FA Cup third round defeat at Old Trafford in early January.

Ferguson has forged a reputation on playing mind games with opposing managers ahead of major fixtures, most notably with Arsene Wenger and Kevin Keegan.

But Dalglish has told the United manager any attempt to wind up Liverpool would be given short shrift.

“He has used psychology before in the preamble to matches, but he will only get sparring practice if he tries to use it on ourselves,” said the Anfield manager.

“We’ve both been a long time out of short trousers. It will have to be a good one to catch us out.”

Although Dalglish and Ferguson have been long-time acquaintances, the pair famously had a falling out after a 3-3 draw at Anfield in 1988 when Dalglish interrupted a radio interview with his angry United counterpart by insisting his daughter would talk more sense. Ferguson’s fiery temperament got the better of him this week with the 69-year-old facing an FA charge for comments over referee Martin Atkinson following Tuesday’s defeat at Chelsea.

And Dalglish said: “Is he still talking about my daughter?

“She will be there to haunt him on Sunday!

“I know Dermot Gallagher said that there was one time when Fergie had annihilated him after a game somewhere and they had a meeting in Leeds to get a better relationship between managers and referees a couple of weeks later.

“He (Gallagher) was sitting next to Fergie and thought ‘oh no’, and Fergie asked him what the problem was. Dermot told him he’d annihilated him two weeks earlier and Fergie just said ‘yes, but that’s just the game.’

“Whatever he says, that’s it, it’s just part of the game and the aftermath of it.”

United are four points clear at the top of the Premier League and remain on course to win a record-breaking 19th league title.