Academy'That hat-trick meant so much to me'

The 20-year-old made it six goals for the season as Liverpool U21s produced a superb display to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 5-0 at the Academy.

After a pair of opportunist strikes, his third of the contest was the icing on the cake, Stewart spotting the visiting goalkeeper off his line from a misplaced clearance and lobbing the ball into the net from more than 30 yards out.

Oakley Cannonier then provided two more efforts for the Reds having replaced Stewart from the bench.

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After missing 13 months due to an ACL injury, Stewart is getting sharper and sharper, and his hat-trick against Wolves represented his first goals on the main pitch in Kirkby since his return.

“That meant a lot to me, it was my first goal on this pitch since I got my injury so that was a big one for me as I’ve been thinking about that a lot,” he told Liverpoolfc.com.

“Each game I play, each training session I’m getting my rhythm back and getting sharper. It was a good day, to score the hat-trick, the lads were brilliant and it was a great team performance.

“They were tough to break down but second half we came out, they couldn’t deal with us and we got our goals.”

Stewart was also keen to praise his teammates for their help in creating the chances for him to convert, with Barry Lewtas’ side now seven matches unbeaten in PL2.

“The boys in midfield worked hard to get me chances,” he added.

“The second was a great pass from Dominic Corness and the one for my hat-trick, funnily enough Dom said to me their ’keeper is off his line quite a lot, so I looked up, saw him off his line, had a go, and luckily enough for me it went in.

“Oakley was brilliant as well, some great goals and he was unlucky not to get his hat-trick.”