In a desperate attempt to fulfil her childhood dream of taking to the hallowed Anfield turf, born-and-bred scouser Missy Bo Kearns sported a Chelsea shirt for the two sides' Champions League semi-final clash in April 2008.
Aged just seven, Bo Kearns was void of role models in the women's game and instead had dreams of emulating her idols Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.
Yet later tonight, the Allerton-born midfielder will finally take to the turf again - some 14 years since her last steps - as Liverpool Women host Everton in the Merseyside derby in front of an expected crowd of 25,000.
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Matt Beard's side head into the second weekend of the new Women's Super League season sitting fourth in the table, having completed an incredible opening day scalp over the division's reigning champions, Chelsea. Two goals from forward Katie Stengel, both courtesy of the penalty spot, helped the Reds come from behind to end their two-year exile from the game's top-flight with a victory in front of a record crowd at Prenton Park.
But back on that night in April 2008, when Rafa Benitez's side could only muster a score-draw in the first leg against Avram Grant's Chelsea, Bo Kearns' success in a club-run mascot competition allowed her to experience the ins and outs of what being a professional footballer for Liverpool entailed, as she emerged from the depths of the old Main Stand tunnel alongside Gerrard, Xabi Alonso and Torres.
"I was singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' in my head because I didn’t want to be seen singing it with the Chelsea players," recalls the 21-year-old while in conversation with the ECHO, in the stands of Prenton Park. "The only reason I was in a Chelsea kit is because I wanted to walk out with the Liverpool players, and in the end I was paired with Martin Skrtel."
How times have changed for the midfielder, who was recently rewarded for her stellar title-winning campaign with a new long-term contract at Liverpool as Beard strengthened his squad ahead of the club's return to the elite level of the women's game. Having just turned 21, Kearns is already planning to spend her prime years at Prenton Park as she hopes to take the club she adores so deeply, and clearly, back to their scintillating former glories of back-to-back WSL titles.
"It feels unbelievable," says Kearns discussing her new deal. "I’ve dreamed of playing for Liverpool and signing a new long-term contract at the club. As I said, I’m at home. Liverpool is home to me. I love the city, I love the team and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else at this moment in time.
"It was frustrating at times in the last few years because we weren’t in the WSL. I think Liverpool is the best team in the world but we had a bit of a rough patch, but that’s life and that’s football. We then bounced back and had a great season. We worked really hard week in, week out and got the results we needed. Now we’re back where we belong."
In truth, Kearns' career in Liverpool's senior ranks has been nothing short of a whirlwind since making her debut in March 2019, which was shortly followed by the devastating low of the club's relegation to the Championship in 2020. The relegation, under then manager Vicky Jepson, was controversially a result of the Coronavirus pandemic forcing the WSL league standings to be settled on a points-per-game basis. However, the youthful Scouser has flourished since the appointment of Beard last summer and even managed to etch her name into the Liverpool history books when she became the women's youngest ever captain last October, aged just 20.
And after helping her childhood club finish an impressive 11 points clear of title rivals Bristol City in the Championship last term, tasting defeat just twice all season, the England under-23 international is refusing to limit how successful the Reds can be this term as they line up against Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United for the first time in two seasons.
"It's gone now," says Kearns refusing to dwell on the heartbreak of the 2019/2020 campaign. "We’re fresh. We’ve got a fresh manager and players. We’ll think about last season, not seasons before. We know we’re going into this league as champions. We might not be champions of the WSL, but we need confidence going into games.
"Matt [Beard] has got us so together as a team, everyone is smiling and he knows how to win football games. That’s what helps with keeping a happy team, and the players he has brought in have added real quality. That’s a credit to him, he keeps building and taking us from strength to strength without breaking the bond we have built during the last two seasons."
Kearns adds: "I’m really looking forward to it, all the top players are in this league and if you want to be one of the best players you have got to be able to stand out and play against the best. I think it will test me personally, I’ve just turned 21 and I’ve never played week in, week out in the Women’s Super League.
"I think we’re gonna just be setting out every game to win, we want to win every game. That might not happen, but that’s what our attitude is going to be."
Having been drawn out of a Liverpool supporters' competition when she last took to the Anfield pitch in 2008, Kearns' next appearance will certainly not be the by-product of luckiness. Having played in the same Sunday League side as childhood friends and fellow professionals Bobby Duncan and Liverpool's Curtis Jones in Mossley Hill, the 21-year-old's path to the first team has been nothing short of a rollercoaster; rocked by pandemics, lock-downs, unflattering loan spells and the heartbreak of being made to watch the 1-0 defeat to Everton at Anfield from the substitutes' bench in November 2019.
"It will be a dream come true to walk out at Anfield. Last time I only warmed up there, didn’t I?" jokes Kearns, evidently relishing the prospect of making amends for the slender defeat in the last meeting between the two sides. "Hopefully, we get a good crowd. I just hope I can have an impact on the game."
It promises to be an exciting campaign for all involved with the women's game, both in the WSL and Championship as attendances are forecasted to skyrocket following the Lionesses' European Championship triumph earlier this summer. And Kearns hopes the recent signs of a growing appetite for the game across the country persist in the coming months and years, not just weeks.
"I would never have even dreamed of it," admits the midfielder, who spent her early years in the game turning out for a boy's Sunday League team. "It’s unreal the way the women’s game is growing. I’m lucky enough to come into the game at the right time and make sure it keeps growing and growing. Now it’s time for the younger players, not just me, to keep driving the game like the older players have done to get it to this stage. We want to grow it even more.
"Seeing little kids with 'Kearns 7' on their backs makes me smile. Hopefully, they’ll be more in the future and I can continue to put a smile on their faces."
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