Six years ago today, Steven Gerrard marked his 400th Liverpool appearance in fairy-tale fashion – by firing a hat-trick in an Anfield victory over Everton.

The midfielder notched the first league treble in the Merseyside derby in 30 years to help Kenny Dalglish’s Reds to a 3-0 victory over their neighbours.

His first came after 34 minutes of the Tuesday-night encounter; deftly lofting the ball over a crowd of bodies and into the net from the edge of the area after Tim Howard had saved at the feet of Martin Kelly following a sweeping Liverpool break.

The second finish – nine minutes in the second half – was more about raw power, as Gerrard smashed into the roof of the Kop-end net after Luis Suarez had wriggled beyond two Everton defenders from the right.

The hat-trick was completed with one of the game’s final kicks as Suarez sped into the area, stepped inside Sylvain Distin and unselfishly squared for the No.8 to hook into the goal from 12 yards.

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"Gerrard came at Everton with all the velocity and venom of a stone from a catapult,” Henry Winter, then of the Telegraph, wrote afterwards. “Anfield was treated to Gerrard at his buccaneering best, tackling one moment, attacking the next.”

The man himself was a little more modest in his appraisal of his own performance.

"To beat Everton is always special, so to get three goals is that little bit extra," Gerrard said. "But I have to give my teammates a special mention, especially Luis Suarez - he put two on a plate for me.

"It was a great team performance and a clean sheet - everything we wanted from the game, we got."

Dalglish’s assessment of his captain’s performance wasn’t quite as coy.

"I am not educated enough to add to whatever anyone else has said about Steven,” the Scot said, emphatically. “He's been fantastic for this football club. I left school at 15, my vocabulary is not that great.

“There is no way I could extol the virtues of Steven Gerrard and do him justice.”