Steve Bruce revealed Paul Ince (pictured) once pulled a gun on Sir Alex Ferguson.

Bruce comes face to face with Ince at the Stadium of Light today when his Sunderland side host Notts County in the third round of the FA Cup. Bruce was skipper at Old Trafford in the early Nineties when Ince, now manager of Notts County, arrived from West Ham telling his new team-mates he wanted to be referred to by his Upton Park nickname, ‘The Guv’nor’. And just days later he had all their jaws on the floor when he turned up in the dressing room brandishing a gun. “Paul was nuts when he was a kid,” said Bruce. “I don’t think Fergie was ever attacked by a rifle before. “I remember when he brought in his gun. He poked it around the door and it was a big air rifle. Fergie must have shouted at him or something like that to provoke it. “Incey was larger than life and a good character to have around. He must have had something about him to threaten Fergie with a gun. We saw him do it. He poked the gun through the door and he was only 22 at the time.

“It was just tongue in cheek, though. He just knocked on the door and said something like, ‘You’d better stop picking on me’ or, ‘You had better play me on Saturday’.” Bruce added: “He liked to think he was the Guv’nor. It just showed you how much front and bottle he had to be called the Guv’nor even when he first walked in the door. “I just thought, ‘Who’s this cocky little thing from West Ham?’ But when you’re cocky like him you have to be able to back it up – and by god he was a good player. To have him and Roy Keane in front of me in their prime, with Andrei Kanchelskis and Ryan Giggs on the wings and Mark Hughes and Eric Cantona up front, that was some team I can tell you. It could do everything.”

Ferguson and Ince endured a tempestuous relationship for six years before the Old Trafford boss sold him to Inter Milan in 1995, labelling Ince a “bottler” and “big-time Charlie”. But Bruce and his team-mates were all convinced of his talents. “We respected Incey straight away as a player,” said Bruce. “He has mellowed and matured since he became a dad. He just carries a pistol now rather than a rifle! “He’ll be going grey around the gills now and he won’t like that, but he’s a good lad.” The pair’s friendship has extended to Bruce allowing Notts County to use Sunderland’s training facilities ahead of today’s tie – and inviting his old pal to lunch.

But Bruce is on a diet. He admits he loves a pork pie and has given them up as a new year’s resolution – but Ince reckons if he can pull off a shock result today the need for comfort food will be unbearable. “Let’s see how long that resolution lasts,” said Ince. “If we beat them, perhaps he’ll be back on the pork pies. “When I went to United I gravitated towards Bruce because he likes a beer – still does by the size of him. We are very good friends. Our houses were about 200 yards apart and we mixed socially. We go on holiday every year to the Algarve. We are very close. “He looked after me at United and I get pleasure in seeing him do well at Sunderland. He can hopefully go on and become England manager.”

Ince took over at Notts County this season and has led them from the depths of League One towards safety, seeing them unbeaten in their past six games. “Bruce has the respect of players at Sunderland,” said Ince. “The players can relate to him. You’ve got to have a bond with them. They have to be able to come to you with their problems, even if it’s not football-related.” Ince and the new County owner, Ray Trew, are still dealing with the bills caused by the Munto Finance takeover debacle that nearly bankrupted the club – a far cry from Ince’s glory days with United. “Winning the Cup in 1994 was fantastic,” he said. “To win it at as a 22-year-old kid was amazing. I look back and I’m all skinny, hair’s all over the place, and I wore the No2 shirt.