Kenny Dalglish today urged his players to banish the frustrations of recent games and deliver a derby victory at Anfield tonight.

Liverpool welcome Everton for the 217^th Merseyside derby on the back of three successive league defeats which has left them off the pace in the race for a top four finish at the end of the season.

Dalglish insists his men have deserved better over recent matches and is looking forward to the opportunity of returning to winning ways against our local rivals tonight.

"For us it's a massive game," Dalglish admitted.

"It's a great game to play in and there will be a fantastic atmosphere. Anybody involved in football knows derby matches are special.

"We know how big it is and how much enjoyment the people get from winning it.

"If you win you get to enjoy it and you get the bragging rights for the city. But both teams come straight out of it into FA Cup sixth round ties at the weekend.

"There's not much time to sit back and rest on your laurels and neither would you want to. But I'm sure everyone would get a fair bit of enjoyment from a positive result.

"Everyone has to take responsibility and everyone needs to stand up and be counted. Let's stand together and see what we can do."

Despite the Reds' recent run of defeats in the Premier League, the boss insists there's no cause for alarm.

"It's certainly not a record you expect from Liverpool," he said.

"We don't want to get into the habit of losing games, but in between the losses we won the Carling Cup.

"We've never gloated when we've won so we won't hang ourselves when we've lost. No-one is feeling sorry for themselves.

"Both against Arsenal and Sunderland we deserved more than what we got. They were different performances but we were playing different teams in different conditions. For all the attributes Sunderland had we more than matched them. We had 56% possession and they had one shot on target which they made the most of.

"They got a bit of luck with their goal and if you are going to win games you always need a bit of good fortune at some stage.

"We wanted to progress this season and we have progressed. We've also got a stronger squad this year than we had last year, but we've got to put points on the board.

"We just need to keep believing in ourselves and keep pushing forward."