Anfield remains a ground of frustration for Liverpool Women. New head coach Gareth Taylor had urged supporters to be patient as a new era begins, but their derby-day curse continued with another bruising defeat to Everton Women
The new 2025/26 Women’s Super League season began with the promise of fresh chapters for both Merseyside clubs, but the script at Anfield was all too familiar. For the fifth time in a row, Everton left with derby-day bragging rights, this time dismantling Liverpool 4-1 in front of a stunned home crowd
The story of the day was Ornella Vignola. Making her WSL debut, the 20-year-old forward delivered a performance for the ages, scoring a hat-trick to etch her name alongside club legend Dixie Dean — the last Everton player to score three goals in a Merseyside derby, way back in 1931. For Everton fans, it was history. For Liverpool, heartbreak.
There was optimism before kick-off. This was Gareth Taylor’s first competitive game in charge since leaving Manchester City to take over at Liverpool. The summer had offered little time for major squad overhauls, but there was hope that Taylor’s ideas could breathe new life into a side that often flattered to deceive last season.
That optimism seemed well placed in the opening exchanges. Liverpool pressed with energy, looked confident in possession, and were rewarded when Cornelia Kapocs rifled the ball past Courtney Brosnan in the 12th minute. Anfield roared. For a brief spell, belief spread that this could be the day Liverpool finally broke Everton’s hold over them.
Taylor admitted afterwards even he had been surprised by just how well his players started.
“I was actually probably more surprised in the first half at how well we did play,” he said. “I probably didn’t expect us to play that well in the first half and control the game the way we did.”
But derbies rarely follow fairytales, and Everton’s reply was swift. Just 12 minutes after Kapocs’ opener, Vignola struck her first of the afternoon, silencing the crowd and tilting momentum. Liverpool still dominated much of the half, but on the brink of half-time, they were dealt a sucker punch.
Katja Snoeijs rose to meet a cross and headed Everton into a 2-1 lead minutes before the half-time whistle. Suddenly, Liverpool’s control of the game counted for little.
“Football’s funny sometimes,” Taylor reflected. “We’ve probably felt a little bit aggrieved today, but I think the second half is a more even affair. Games can get away from you really, really quickly. My feelings are strange because particularly that first 40 minutes, we were better than pretty good.”
If the first half was about Liverpool’s endeavour, the second belonged entirely to Vignola. In the space of two minutes, she twice found the net, completing her hat-trick and effectively killing off the contest before the hour mark. Each goal underlined her composure and clinical edge — qualities the visitors had been searching for after a difficult campaign last season.
By the time the final whistle blew, Everton had secured yet another emphatic derby win at Anfield. For Liverpool, the scoreline felt brutal, given the quality of their early play.
The result, however, did little to dent Taylor’s belief in the project he has taken on. He was candid in acknowledging both the positives and the work still ahead.
“You just continue to work hard and be really honest in your appraisals,” he said when asked how to avoid the result having a knock-on effect. “Focus on the positives today, and there were a lot of positives, although it won’t feel that way for the players at this moment. I think it’s working hard. We knew that we weren’t going to be able to come in and affect things really, really quickly.”
He added: “We know this is not a short-term project. We don’t want to receive scorelines like that. But like I said before, sometimes in football you can have that type of situation happen, where the opposition has four attempts and they score four goals.”
For Everton, the opening weekend could hardly have gone better: three points, a derby win, and a new star in Vignola. For Liverpool, defeat will sting, not least because it continues a barren run in this fixture that dates back to 2019. But there were signs of improvement in the first half, glimpses of the identity Taylor hopes to build.
In the end, though, the narrative remained unchanged. On derby day, Anfield belonged to Everton once again.
