SCOTLAND striker Steven Naismith admits he is hoping his perfect hat-trick in the 3-1 victory over Chelsea will thrust him back into Everton manager Roberto Martinez's plans.
The former Rangers and Kilmarnock player grabbed his chance with both hands by putting the English champions to the sword after replacing the injured Muhamed Besic after only nine minutes.
A frustrating start to the campaign for the 28-year-old has seen Naismith come off the bench in all of the Toffees' first five Premier League matches.
But Naismith is now eyeing a return to the starting line-up after tormenting Jose Mourhino's side.
He said: "It was a great day, it's something you don’t expect when the game starts and you are on the bench.
"It is dream stuff, I didn't realise it was a perfect hat-trick until Jags [Phil Jagielka] came up to celebrate and told me.
"I've scored hat-tricks before but I don't think I've managed a perfect one.
"It's been a tough start to the season for me as I've obviously not played too many games and as a player it's hard to keep taking when you're on the bench.
"You just need to be ready and I think there are a couple of occasions in my Everton career that I've proved that.
"You never know in football, you need to make sure you're ready for anything that comes up and Saturday was the prime example of that.
"I've got confidence in my ability and hopefully it is a bright future for me."
Everton manager Martinez was full of praise for Naismith.
He said: "Steven's performance typified the effort and the character that we have at Everton.
"He hasn't been in the starting eleven and all he did was focus and be ready to take his moment.
"To score a perfect hat-trick against the current champions, I think that shows you a lot and I think he's the type of example that we want at Everton to the younger players, to show them that you need to be ready and you need to prepare yourself so that when you get your opportunity on the pitch, you can take it.
"It was a real joy to see Steven enjoying that sort of performance."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel