JAY SPEARING has earned a ringing endorsement from his captain and won praise for overshadowing an England international.

The 23-year-old was an unsung hero in the Reds’ Merseyside derby victory earlier this week but his performance did not go unnoticed by Steven Gerrard.

Liverpool’s skipper has paid glowing tribute to the Wirral-born midfielder, saying you cannot truly acknowledge Spearing’s talent until you have played alongside him.

Gerrard, who struck a memorable hat-trick at Anfield against Everton, believes Spearing is constantly improving and says Dalglish’s trust in the Premier Reserve League title winner is paying off.

To illustrate his point, Gerrard compared Spearing’s display on Tuesday night to that of the Blues’ Jack Rodwell, a player widely tipped to become an England regular and one expected to command a major transfer fee should Everton choose to sell him.

“I think he’s been consistent all season,” Gerrard said of Spearing.

“Every time the manager has called on him, Jay has been superb.

“He was up against Jack Rodwell. People talk about him as a £25m player and England’s future, well I think Jay more than matched him if not was better than him.

“Jay is growing, he’s getting better and better and has a massive future at this club.

“We’re really pleased to have him. He’s such an unselfish player who keeps it ticking. You have to play with him to appreciate him. He’s a top lad.

“Kenny has seen in training that he’s good enough. He had the faith in him. Previous managers maybe haven’t trusted that he could do it but Kenny gave him his chance and he hasn’t let Kenny down. He’s been one of our better players for sure.”

The return of Dalglish last year brought about an upturn in Spearing’s fortunes and finishing the previous campaign with nine consecutive starts, the Academy graduate won a contract extension.

A first Premier League start of this campaign was ruined by a red card at Fulham and when Spearing pushed his way back to the front of Liverpool’s midfield queue, injury struck as he was in full flow against Manchester City.

But he has returned stronger and a 15th start of the season in midweek confirmed his growing importance to Liverpool’s plans.

Spearing is likely to keep his place for Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final with Stoke City, a game Gerrard believes they need to approach as if it is the final.

“It’s a massive game and we need to treat it like the Cup final – it’s as simple as that,” said the Liverpool captain.

“We need to put in a big performance because we want to take the supporters down to Wembley for a second time.

“It would be a fantastic achievement if we could get to Wembley twice.”

Victory on Tuesday night in the 217th derby ended a three-game losing run in the league for Liverpool and following the woeful showing at Sunderland, Gerrard and the Reds produced the reaction he was after.

Throughout the sticky patch, Dalglish had maintained that the club were making progress, a sentiment to which Gerrard agrees.

“You can talk about luck, things not going your way, but you have to take responsibility for putting the ball in the back of the net and against Everton it worked out for us,” said Gerrard. “The performances have been really good. The big picture is that the squad is a lot stronger and we are moving forward. But unless we can get the ball in the back of the net and have an end product we are going to find themselves sixth or seventh in the league and that’s not what we want.

“The league is getting stronger and stronger each year. To finish in the top four you have to be consistent.

“You can’t choose when you turn up. You can’t be eight out of 10 one week and then two or three out of 10 otherwise teams down there will beat you – as the games at Bolton and Sunderland showed.

“If you don’t turn up and compete against these sides you get beat.”