FeatureKop 10: Fastest Liverpool hat-tricks

On August 28, 1994, it took Robbie Fowler just four minutes and 33 seconds to score three times against Arsenal at Anfield.

Here, with the help of LFC statistician Ged Rea, we’ve trawled through the record books to compile a list of the 10 quickest trebles in the Reds’ post-war history…

Michael Owen v Newcastle United, August 1998

Time taken: 17 minutes

Michael Owen returned from the 1998 World Cup a global superstar, having showcased his prodigious talents on football’s biggest stage.

And, still only 18 years old, the forward began the 1998-99 season in scintillating form for Liverpool – a point underlined by this solo destruction of Newcastle United.

The Reds would run out 4-1 winners at St. James’ Park thanks predominantly to Owen, who plundered a clinical hat-trick in the space of just 17 first-half minutes.

Terry McDermott v Hamburg, December 1977

Time taken: 17 minutes

Liverpool would end the 1977-78 season having retained the European Cup and served notice to the rest of the continent of their ability to do so by hammering Hamburg in the Super Cup earlier in the campaign.

Back then, the Super Cup pitted the holders of the European Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup against each other in a two-legged tie and, after claiming a 1-1 draw in Germany a fortnight earlier, the Reds routed a team containing former Liverpool star Kevin Keegan 6-0 in the return at Anfield.

Terry McDermott was the driving force behind an irresistible performance, the midfielder netting three times in a 17-minute spell that straddled half-time.

Yossi Benayoun v Havant & Waterlooville, January 2008

Time taken: 16 minutes

Non-league Havant & Waterlooville had stunned Anfield by twice taking the lead in this FA Cup fourth-round tie in January 2008, before a 16-minute hat-trick by Yossi Benayoun restored order.

This was the second of three trebles scored by Benayoun during his Liverpool career and it guided Rafael Benitez’s side to a 5-2 victory over their part-time opponents, who sat five divisions and 123 places below the Reds in the English football pyramid.

Benayoun’s first goal arrived just before half-time and spared Liverpool the ignominy of being 2-1 behind to the visitors at the break.

By the hour mark, he had completed his hat-trick and extinguished any lingering Havant hopes of recording a seismic FA Cup shock.

Steven Gerrard v Napoli, November 2010

Time taken: 15 minutes

He’d done it before and he’d do it again.

Steven Gerrard habitually rescued Liverpool throughout his glittering career and did so here – in a Europa League group-stage tie with Napoli – with a 15-minute hat-trick.

The Reds trailed 1-0 at half-time of this Anfield contest in November 2010, but Gerrard’s introduction at the interval altered the course of the match.

The captain’s first goal, where he slid in to beat the goalkeeper to an under-hit backpass, didn’t arrive until the 75th minute, and he then made it 2-1 late on with a typically cool penalty.

And Gerrard saved his best until last by completing his treble with an impudent dinked finish.

Ian Rush v Coventry City, May 1984

Time taken: 15 minutes

The 1983-84 season was the most prolific of Ian Rush’s record-breaking Liverpool career.

Forty-seven of his 346 goals for the club were scored in a campaign that saw the Reds win a treble of First Division, European Cup and League Cup.

Rush’s remarkable haul featured a 15-minute hat-trick – strikes 43, 44 and 45 of the term – in a 5-0, late-season demolition of Coventry City at Anfield.

The Welshman opened the scoring shortly before half-time and his hat-trick goal came via a 57th-minute penalty. And for good measure, he went on to add a late fourth, too.

Roger Hunt v West Ham United, September 1965

Time taken: Nine minutes

Liverpool would end 1965-66 as First Division champions for the second time in three seasons under Bill Shankly, with the great Roger Hunt weighing in with 29 league goals.

Three of Hunt’s impressive tally arrived in the space of just nine minutes as Shankly’s side ran out comprehensive 5-1 victors over West Ham United at Upton Park in their fifth game of the campaign.

The Reds led 2-0 when Hunt added goals three and four in the late stages of the first half, before completing his hat-trick soon after the restart.

Jack Balmer v Derby County, November 1946

Time taken: Seven minutes

Scouser Jack Balmer scored 110 goals in 309 appearances for Liverpool – and, incredibly, three of them arrived in a seven-minute burst in a 4-1 win at Derby County in November 1946.

The Reds were en route to being crowned champions but this match remained goalless with 43 minutes on the clock at the Baseball Ground.

By the 50th minute, though, Balmer had netted three times – and, by the hour, he had his fourth goal of the afternoon, too.

Mohamed Salah v Rangers, October 2022

Time taken: Six minutes and 12 seconds

Since joining Liverpool in the summer of 2017, Mohamed Salah has normalised the abnormal when it comes to goalscoring.

And among the Egyptian’s vast collection of records and landmarks is the quickest hat-trick in Champions League history.

It took Salah just six minutes and 12 seconds to notch on three occasions after he’d been brought off the bench in a 7-1 Champions League win over Rangers at Ibrox in October 2022.

First, he shrugged off a defender and squeezed the ball home from a tight angle, then he produced an improvised toe-poke from the edge of the area, and then he dispatched a trademark curler into the corner.

Johnny Wheeler v Port Vale, November 1956

Time taken: Five minutes

After the legendary Billy Liddell had put Liverpool ahead in this Second Division clash with Port Vale, Johnny Wheeler took centre stage.

The Crosby-born midfielder scored 23 goals for the Reds and, remarkably, that tally includes a five-minute hat-trick, which was completed in the closing stages of a 4-1 victory at Anfield.

Robbie Fowler v Arsenal, August 1994

Time taken: Four minutes and 33 seconds

Thirty years on, it still defies logic and reason – but yes, Fowler really did score a hat-trick in just four minutes and 33 seconds.

That he did so at the age of 19 and against an Arsenal team containing the likes of David Seaman and Tony Adams only adds to the mystique of a scarcely believable achievement.

Starting in 1994-95, Fowler topped 30 goals in three consecutive seasons and here, in the late-summer sunshine at Anfield, he opened the scoring in the 26th minute via a close-range finish.

The second came when he beat Seaman with a precise left-footed hit and history was made when he converted a third moments later.

Fowler’s stood as the fastest Premier League hat-trick for nearly 21 years until Sadio Mane, then of Southampton, bettered it in 2015.