Jermaine Pennant was a Birmingham City player when Blues last travelled to Anfield two seasons ago.

And he had to work harder than usual to help earn a 1-1 draw when his old Blues team-mate Damien Johnson was red carded for a bad challenge before the half hour was up.

But Pennant now has a sweat on to find out if he will be part of the action when his old team roll up at Anfield tomorrow, thanks to his own on-field indiscretions.

The former Blues wild child is not certain to play after being sent off for the first time in his senior career on Wednesday night in Liverpool's 1-1 Champions League draw with Porto.

"I hope the manager won't hold the sending off against me," said Pennant. "It's the first time in my senior career I've been sent off.

"I was once sent off in a friendly under-18 international, but that's the only other time, so my disciplinary record isn't bad.

"I didn't think it was the right decision to send me off. It wasn't a yellow card because it wasn't a serious foul, and I didn't touch the Porto player anyway. He made a meal of it, so it was way too harsh."

Pennant has so far been an automatic selection for Liverpool's five league games this season. But this latest on-field incident certainly did not go down well with his current boss Rafa Benitez.

"It is difficult to understand why he did it," said Benitez. "We had talked to him about staying on his feet and not making rash challenges. Hopefully Jermaine will learn from this experience."

If Pennant does play tomorrow, at least Blues boss Steve Bruce will know what to expect.

As he admitted only last week when he said he had never been afraid of signing a few "waifs, strays and vagabonds", Bruce has never shirked the challenge of a potentially troublesome player.

After bringing in Pennant from Arsenal on January transfer deadline day in 2005, Bruce knew that Pennant faced a likely custodial sentence for an earlier episode of late night behaviour. Within a month, just four games into his Blues career, he was enjoying Her Majesty's Pleasure, rather than the St Andrew's crowd's.

Crashing his Mercedes into a lamp post in Aylesbury whilst uninsured and already on a 16-month drink driving ban earned him a three-month sentence, the last two months of which he served on parole, returning to play for Blues wearing an electronic tag.

Judging by the way he first wowed the St Andrew's crowd with a match-winning performance for Blues in a 2-0 win over Liverpool less than a fortnight after he had signed, Bruce would be quite pleased to keep him tagged tomorrow.

And it could be a tough job for Franck Queudrue on only his third Blues start.

Blues sealed a memorable double over Liverpool that February day l9 months ago, but they have not won in four meetings since.

The two drawn games the season Blues went down were followed by a record 7-0 FA Cup slaughter, and a 1-0 Carling Cup loss last season (in which Pennant enjoyed a quiet return to St Andrew's).

Bruce will be grateful if he is kept as quiet tomorrow.