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With its rows of humble, identikit terraced houses, Ironside Road looks like a thousand other Merseyside cul-de-sacs.

Modest, close-knit, working-class; it is Huyton, but it could easily be Croxteth, Bootle, Speke, Wavertree.

At the far end, though, in front of the bungalows of Rome Close, lies a patch of concrete with a million tales to tell. Known locally as “The Happy Street”, this was the breeding ground for an English football great.

“Anfield, Goodison and Wembley all rolled into one,” is how Steven Gerrard describes that scrap of land in front of No.10, his childhood home. Cars park there now, but that’s a new development. It wasn’t always so.

“Back then, it was MY pitch,” Gerrard says. “No cars allowed.”

Gerrard still bears the scars from those tarmac battles – including one from a skirmish with a garden fork which almost cost him the big toe on his soon-to-be famous right foot – but it was here, amongst the urban sprawl and the sharp wits of the older kids, that his skills were honed.

“We used it for five-a-side, 10-a-side, 20-a-side, rounders, shootie, catch,” remembers Gerrard. “If anyone was there when I came out my house, they had to go.”

Gerrard’s natural gifts and competitive instincts carried him a long way quickly on the tough Bluebell Estate. At six, he was holding his own against boys years older, friends of his brother, Paul.

In pictures: Steven Gerrard's LFC career

There were setbacks. Split lips from sibling scuffles, tears when rejected by Tolgate, a local boys’ team, for being too young, the pain of missing a trip to Wembley with St Michaels after cutting his leg on a Coke can attempting a slide tackle. But Gerrard was on an upwards trajectory. He was on his way to Liverpool.

It was Ben McIntyre, manager of Whiston Juniors, who recommended the eight-year-old Gerrard to Liverpool. McIntyre told Dave Shannon, youth coach at Anfield, that in Gerrard he had something special on his hands. “You’ve got to come and take a look at this kid,” was the gist of his phone call. And so Liverpool sent a delegation to Whiston’s next game. They never regretted it.

“You could see straight away he was immensely talented,” says Shannon. “He had a fantastic desire to play and compete. He wanted to be the best at everything. He was just born to be what he is. You could instantly see he was something special. He even trained with the older boys – he was fearless.”

Hughie McAuley, who along with Shannon and Reds Academy chief Steve Heighway would smooth the edges off Huyton’s rough diamond, agrees.

“He was tiny, but you couldn’t miss him,” he remembers. “He was just a natural footballer. He could do anything on the pitch.”

Gerrard was fast-tracked into Liverpool’s Centre of Excellence, attending sessions twice a week at the Vernon Sangster Sports Centre, behind Stanley Park.

He was in good company, training alongside the likes of Michael Owen and Jason Koumas. McAuley remembers that trio gravitating towards one another, co-ordinating their kits to ensure they would be on the same team.

“Good players automatically seek each other out,” he says. “Steven and Michael, especially, were very much on the same wavelength.

“We knew from the age of 14 he was going to make it,” says Steve Heighway. “We took him on an U18 tour of Spain when he was 13, which I’ve never done with a player before or since. His gift was so massive.”

The experience was appreciated. Gerrard, by his own admission an “undistinguished” school pupil, excelled at Liverpool. Though physically slender, his aggression, attitude and, above all, quality stood out a mile.

At 14, he signed two years’ schoolboy forms, with the promise of a three-year professional contract on his 17th birthday. He was flying.

“I remember one game at Melwood when we played Manchester United,” says Dave Shannon. “The ball came out to him and he chested it on the edge of the box. I knew he was going to volley it and it just flew into the net.

“Things like that stick in your mind because we used to spend a tremendous amount of time focusing on striking the ball well in training.

“You know when you watch him now, how he ‘pings’ the ball? Well we used to tell them to make sure you really ‘ping’ your pass so no-one can intercept it. He used to take real joy from hitting a football hard and true.”

There were, naturally, some creases to iron out of Gerrard’s game. McAuley and Shannon recall having to coax him through a growth spurt between 14 and 16, which affected his co-ordination and balance, while his ferocious tackling offered similar cause for concern.

At 16, he was sent to Bill Beswick, the renowned sports psychologist, who advised him to think of traffic lights when going in for tackles.

“Steven didn’t like who he was at that time,” says Hugh McAuley. “He was going in to win the ball but also to leave a bit on his opponent.

“We had to cajole him, talk to him, encourage him. We knew he needed to curb that competitive streak, or he was going to injure himself. Thankfully, Steven has always been someone who listens, who takes advice on board.”

Perhaps just as importantly, his growth spurt meant he was developing the physique to match his ability. Having finished his GCSEs at Cardinal Heenan High School (one C, six Ds and two Es), Gerrard was ready to take the plunge into professional football.

A summer of work experience at Melwood – “I pumped up balls, washed floors, collected cones, everything” – had whetted his appetite. It was quickly to become his second home.

The wizard of the scribble

Writing away furiously in his exercise book at the back of the class, Steven Gerrard would have looked every inch the model student.

Closer inspection, though, would reveal the truth. The scribbles were not schoolwork, but team selections. Gerrard was in class, but his mind was wandering towards lunchtime, when he could launch himself, full throttle, into his latest game.

That was at St Michael’s Primary (now Huyton-with-Roby CE). Diane Courtney-Ward, who has been involved with the school for more than 20 years, and whose son, Dean, was in Gerrard’s class, recalls a shy, private boy, who would transform when in sight of a football pitch.

“He was always a nice, polite kid, well brought up,” she remembers. “But it was when he went to the juniors, at about six, and started playing football that his personality came out.

“You didn’t need to be an expert in football to see he was special. He was everywhere. He just loved it. He lived and breathed football.

“The school team was run by a woman called Gill Morgan in those days, and they had a lot of success, mostly because of Steven.

“His behaviour was never an issue. The poor kid was blackmailed into being good because everyone knew football was his world and he couldn’t bear to miss out.

“The threat was always the same. Any time he was naughty or gave any lip, it would be ‘right, you’re not playing football tonight’, and he would instantly be quiet!”

*Part two tomorrow: Gerrard the player