Kidd close to signing out-of-favour McAteer

Ireland's Jason McAteer may be on the verge of a move from Liverpool to Blackburn Rovers. Out of favour on Merseyside, McAteer is now a target for Blackburn Rovers's new manager Brian Kidd, who has been in contact with his Liverpool counterpart, Gerard Houllier, regarding the sale.

McAteer has been out in the cold since Houllier took over sole control at Anfield, starting only two games in the new manager's 13 matches in charge - and both of those were because of injuries or suspensions in the squad.

However, it is believed that Houllier is reluctant to weaken his squad, and will need a good offer to change his mind. Blackburn are believed to have offered £4.5 million for McAteer.

Liverpool's run of six unbeaten games has revived hopes of Champions' League or UEFA Cup qualification as well as emboldening them ahead of a crunch FA Cup tie at Manchester United next Sunday.

With all that on his plate, Houllier is understandably reluctant to let such a versatile player leave.

But McAteer is far from happy being on the fringes of the first team, and a chance of regular Premiership football would interest him.

He has had three years at Anfield after his £4.5 million move from Bolton in September 1995, and ironically could have gone to Blackburn then.

McAteer's career has been dogged by the name of Blackburn. He international broke his leg against Rovers last January, and he was injured again at the end of the season making his comeback.

He has struggled ever since to hold down a first team place, and now finds himself behind Norwegian defender Vegard Heggem in the fight for the right wing-back role.

Meanwhile, two goals from the Niall Quinn yesterday secured Sunderland's 2-1 win over Division One promotion contenders Ipswich at the Stadium of Light. Quinn scored both goals in the first-half and the victory restores the club's 10-point lead over Bradford at the top of the league.

Sunderland manager Peter Reid admitted afterwards that his side now has one foot in the Premiership, barring disaster.

"Something will have to go massively wrong if we blow it now," he said. "I don't know how many points we are in front of third place, but it's looking great. We're in a strong position, and this is a fantastic result for us."