SAT in the bowels of Wembley in a dressing room stinging from the cruellest of defeats, Victor Anichebe was reminded just how much losing to Liverpool hurts.

The powerful forward had not spent long on the national stadium’s turf that painful afternoon in April, only being called into action as a late replacement for the injured Leighton Baines, but he still felt the stark misery in the Everton dressing room keenly.

Even now, the normally upbeat 24-year-old frowns when he discusses the impact of that FA Cup semi-final set-back on his team-mates - and one man in particular.

Solid and unflappable all season, Sylvain Distin paid dearly for a rare error when his back-pass allowed Luis Suarez to bring Liverpool back into the game.

And for Anichebe there could be no doubts about how badly the French defender felt afterwards.

“I don’t think I’ve seen us as low as that as a group,” he recalls. “We were on form going into that game and there was a lot of optimism.

“We expected to win and we believed that we could win but sometimes in football it just doesn’t go for you.

“For me it was interesting to see Sylvain afterwards. He was our best player in the season but he made that mistake in the game and you could see how hurt he was. It really touched me to see what the game and his slip-up meant to him.

“He was devastated. He just couldn’t talk in the dressing room.”

Such was the gutting disappointment of that day, many were left to question whether Everton’s current squad have a psychological block when it comes to winning derby games.

The three defeats last term were bad enough, but Royal Blue victories have been all too rare in recent years.

“I don’t know if it’s a psychological thing,” says Anichebe. “We don’t look too much into that. We’ve felt good before the last few games but bad results can happen.

“I don’t know – maybe it’s the whole situation. Last year we were expected to beat them before a couple of the games and maybe it does suit us to be the underdogs. But hopefully we can put that right and move on.

“At Goodison they had a lucky break with Jack Rodwell being wrongly sent off but that happens. You get decisions like that in derbies.

Hopefully this time we can do a lot better.”

Whatever the result on Sunday, Anichebe hopes both sets of fans treat each other with respect – a welcome notion he believes is on the rise again in Merseyside.

“They’re always such great games,” he says. “You’ve got two big clubs going at it and there’s a lot of passion. It’s crazy because as much as that rivalry has been it’s always nice to see the fans sat side by side in some parts of the ground.

“Maybe it’s not been as much like that recently but I sense a bit of a swing back towards the friendly rivalry. I’ve got friends who support both teams and they’ll argue about who is the more bitter set of fans - it’s funny to hear but I think it’s getting better.”

Part of Anichebe’s optimism for renewed relations between Mersey supporters comes from the emotional scenes at Goodison Park in September when Everton arranged a tribute to the 96 Hillsborough victims and their families in the wake of the revelations by the independent review panel.

“I thought it was amazing before the Newcastle game,” he says. “It really made me think. I was saying to everyone afterwards that at that moment when the two kids walked on holding hands in Everton and Liverpool kits you could sense the city united and it was more than a rivalry.

“It’s not hatred between the two clubs anyway. Everyone was touched by it – it was a great moment which put a lot of things into perspective. Sure there’s always rivalry but sometimes it’s important to drop all that and come together as one.

“Obviously we go out there to give our all and try our very best to win but when you think of Hillsborough you realise football is just a game at the end of the day. Some things are more important.

“After the game fans should go away and try to be friendly. The jokes and the banter are fine – you wouldn’t want to lose that but it shouldn’t get too spiteful. I think it’s getting better.”

Back to the results business, and Anichebe insists that Everton ultimately provided the perfect riposte to that semi-final defeat by finishing the season in style.

The fact that they have maintained that positivity in this new campaign is, he says, a reason for refreshed optimism in the Blue camp ahead of the game – as is the chance to make amends for April.

“Yes the semi-final defeat really knocked us but we still finished the season on a high which shows the confidence and belief the manager has installed in us,” he says. “We’ll certainly look to try and do better this year – make no mistake.”