Wayne Rooney is the country's favourite Scouser

The Everton FC striker topped the poll in a survey about the country's favourite Liverpudlians.

It was carried out to celebrate International Scouse Day, which takes place on Friday.

Rooney was closely followed in second place by Heidi Range, from the pop band Sugababes. But there was no place in the top 10 for Sir Paul McCartney.

The poll of more than 2,000 people saw two of the city's most famous sons, George Harrison and John Lennon, finishing in joint third place.

Top ten Scousers 1 Wayne Rooney 2 Heidi Range 3 George Harrison 3 John Lennon 5 John Peel 6 Cilla Black 7 Ricky Tomlinson 7 Lily Savage 9 Ken Dodd 10 Jimmy Tarbuck 10 Steven Gerrard

But fellow Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr failed to make it into the top 10.

Richard Ayers, editor of tiscali.co.uk, who commissioned the poll, said: "The result of this poll really took us by surprise.

"We expected the likes of John Lennon, Cilla Black and Jimmy Tarbuck to be the most revered Scousers, and we certainly didn't expect Paul McCartney not to feature at all.

"However, with Euro 2004 around the corner, perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised that Wayne Rooney is seen as the new cool of Liverpool."

International Scouse Day was established to promote Liverpudlian culture and to raise �10 million to build the UK's first integrated unit for the treatment of children with cancer.