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ON HIS DERBY HAT-TRICK AT ANFIELD BACK IN MARCH

“We were under pressure. Our form hadn’t been good. Everyone was telling us Everton were going to win at Anfield for the first time since I was sent off in 1999.

“David Moyes rested players ahead of an FA Cup tie, but I still think we would have won had he picked a full strength team.

“It proved a good night for me personally. I grabbed a hat-trick and to do that against Everton rates high in my career.”

ON STICKING THE MATCHBALL UP HIS SHIRT

“It was one back at the Everton fans who target my family in their songs. I had been given the ball for scoring a hat-trick against them.

“It was just my way of saying ‘all go home and sing your songs, but remember who scored the hat-trick’.

“I’ve done quite well against Everton over the years, but the treble I got last season was hugely satisfying. As good as it was, it’s gone now. If you linger on your achievements in football, you’ll go backwards.

“I know I won’t score a hat-trick against Everton every time I face them, but the odd goal wouldn’t go amiss.”

ON EVERTON’S INTEREST WHEN HE WAS A SCHOOLBOY

“I didn’t realise it at the time but when my dad told me of the interest from Anfield one night at home in Huyton everything altered for me: my direction in life, the path I’d take growing up, the choices I’d make from that day on.

“I was just a baby – eight years old – but that was that. A full blown love affair had been ignited.

“Liverpool’s support didn’t stop me from trying out different clubs. Going elsewhere allowed me to see what those clubs were like compared to Liverpool, but I never got the same feeling.

“Everton were keen on offering me a deal, but they never had a chance. They were pestering my dad all the time to get me to go in and have a look around and play in a game for them and eventually I did just that, to ensure my dad got a break from them as much as anything.

“I started a game for them, but at half-time I was taken off. To this day I don’t know why.

“Maybe they had seen enough, but there were a lot of kids there that day so they could have wanted to give someone else a chance. But I took it as an insult. Everton had been asking me to go there for months and months and then they dragged me off.

“Steve Heighway was happy for me to go and try other places, test the water, but he’d always have a message for Dad before I went anywhere.

“Don’t do anything stupid because we want Steven,” he’d say. “And we want him for a long time.”

ON HIS DERBY DEBUT, A 3-2 WIN AT ANFIELD IN APRIL 1999.

“It was my first taste of a Merseyside derby and I wasn’t about to let the Bluenoses ruin my weekend. It was 71 minutes before I came on but I made my mark.

“I threw myself into tackles, almost ripping the shirt off Danny Cadamarteri’s back at one point, before kicking an effort from him off the line with the goal gaping as Everton sought to make it 3-3 in a pulsating game.

“Anfield exploded as we kept our slender advantage intact and I even celebrated stopping the equaliser, shaking my fists before getting pats on the back from my team-mates.

“It felt like I was the match-winner. There is no better way to win supporters round than ensuring they had the bragging rights in a derby. Now the fans could put their trust in me. I was one of them.

“I had only been on the pitch for 19 minutes but I crammed so much into that time that as I headed back to the dressing room after the final whistle it felt like I was floating on air.”

ON THE RED MIST, HIS DERBY DISMISSAL AT ANFIELD IN SEPTEMBER 1999.

“From being one of the heroes when we played Everton at the back end of the 1998/99 season, I found myself cast in the role of villain when the rivalry was renewed at the start of the new campaign.

“The first red card of my professional career came in the final minutes of a 1-0 defeat at Anfield.

“Tensions were already running high with Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld and Everton’s Franny Jeffers having both been sent off for an earlier flare up when I caught Kevin Campbell with a high challenge.

“In my defence, my foot was high to protect myself because Campbell was coming at me at force. But when he was left in a heap, I knew I was in trouble.

“From where the flashpoint took place to the tunnel at Anfield was probably no more than 25 yards, yet it seemed like an eternity as I trudged off.

“I was guilty of getting carried away and trying to impress too much. I left Anfield all sheepish, but to compound matters I was having a meal afterwards and who did I bump into in the toilets of the restaurant? Kevin Campbell.

“I went up to him and apologised in person because obviously I didn’t really see him immediately after the game. He could have made it difficult for me, but to be fair to him he was brilliant and we shook hands.”

ON SCORING AT GOODISON FOR THE FIRST TIME, IN A 3-1 WIN IN SEPTEMBER 2001

“I had been abused by Evertonians throughout the game. They had thrown coffee at me and half eaten sausage rolls and I actually got hit by a coin on the bridge of my nose.

“It hurt but the only thing you can do is try to make their team suffer. I rifled one into the top corner and the celebration wasn’t just pure instinct. It was to say ‘Throw whatever you want at me..... there you go, there’s my reaction’.

WHAT WINNING A DERBY MEANS

“Beating Everton always pleases me because I know how bad our fans feel when they turn up for work on a Monday morning and have to take a load of stick from their Evertonian mates.

“David Moyes has done a really good job at Goodison and helped Everton finish above Liverpool on a couple of occasions in the Premier League.

“That hurts, but we still have a good record in the head-to-heads against them and that means a lot.

“I always cherish scoring against Everton and I have clear memories of the goals I have managed against them throughout my career.

“Beating Everton doesn’t make Liverpool’s season but for a few days afterwards you have a spring in your step. It is in matches against Everton and Manchester United that, as a player, I feel the responsibility we have in living out the fans’ dreams even more.”

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