‘It made me hungry’ - Liverpool star reveals Anfield frustration and strong derby motive

Scouser and Reds fan Kearns was just 18 years old when the rivals battled it out in front of the Kop for the very first time in November 2019.

But the clash came too soon for Kearns, who has played football for her girlhood club for more than 13 years, and the youngster was forced to watch from the sidelines as a long-range strike from Everton captain Lucy Graham decided the tie in the Blues’ favour.

Kearns explained how watching the game from the bench increased her appetite to learn and improve.

“To get over 20,000 fans coming to watch it was a great experience,” Kearns told LiverpoolFC.com.

“I was frustrated at that moment I wasn’t a starter. I wanted to get on, show what I could do and have an impact on the game.

“But since then, I’ve come on leaps and bounds and it’s made me hungry even more from that moment to want to be making sure that I’m playing.”

The 21-year-old has been a Liverpool fan and Anfield attendee all her life, and even walked former Reds defender Martin Škrtel out onto the pitch for a Champions League tie in 2008.

On the eve of a huge match in L4, Kearns explained what makes the Reds’ spiritual home so special.

“If the crowd’s not singing, you could hear a pin drop and then the next minute you can’t hear yourself think - that’s the ups and downs that Anfield has,” said Kearns.

“Growing up, I wanted to be Steven Gerrard, I wanted to play on the pitch. It’s a place that I used to love when I was a kid and I still love coming now and it’s gonna be unbelievable for that dream to come true.”

After the Blues defeated the home side at Anfield in November 2019, Liverpool suffered relegation to the Championship and the rivals spent two seasons in different divisions.

Kearns’ full first-team debut came in a Continental Cup tie away at Everton in 2020 - when the Blues again edged out a 1-0 win - but the Reds academy product has been battling Merseyside derbies since she was as young as eight years old.

She already knows the scale of the challenge but believes her side, who pulled off a shock win over title holders Chelsea last week, are ready to take it on.

“They’re hard games, sometimes they’re end to end, sometimes they’re aggressive and for us it’s an experience that you can’t say you can do every single week. You’ve just got to make the most of it when the time comes,” said Kearns, who has just signed a contract extension with the Prenton Park outfit.

“I think it’s going to be a tough game, because there’s pressure, but we’ve just got to thrive off that.

“We’ve got a good enough team and the girls are in a good place - we’re ready to put on a show.”