Summer signing Ornella Vignola scored a hat-trick on her Everton debut as the visitors hammered Liverpool at Anfield in Sunday’s Women’s Super League derby.

The 20-year-old, who joined from Granada in the summer, could not have dreamed of a better Everton bow as she secured victory away to their bitter rivals – their fifth Merseyside derby win in five games at Anfield.

Liverpool had impressed in the first half and took the lead when Cornelia Kapocs thumped the ball past goalkeeper Courtney Brosana in the 12th minute.

It was manager Gareth Taylor’s first game in charge of the hosts and there were signs of significant improvement from a Liverpool team who had had just weeks to work with him.

But despite their dominance in an exciting opening half, Everton would not lie down and got themselves back into the game through Vignola 12 minutes later.

Liverpool continued to control the game until Katja Snoeijs dealt another sucker-punch with a header on the brink of half-time to make it 2-1 to Everton.

The second half was all about Everton and Vignola as she scored two goals in as many minutes to take the game away from Liverpool in devastating fashion.

Everton boss Brian Sorensen’s changes at half-time also made a difference, with club record signing Ruby Mace adding control in midfield.

The result is a blow to Liverpool given their promising start but it shows that the talent Everton have recruited after a summer of major investment has the potential to take them to another level.

“I’m really happy with the win of course. We were not at our levels in those first 35 minutes, but we were leading at half-time which was nice,” said Everton boss Sorensen.

“We had six debutants starting in the first game of the season, in the derby at Anfield, so I don’t know if that played a part.

“We connected about four passes in the first 20 minutes – but we got back into it and saw character from the girls and in the second half we controlled it.”