Liverpool supporters on the Kop during Wednesday's match with Bournemouth were joined by a surprise new recruit - Kenny Dalglish!
The Anfield icon swapped his seat in the director's box for a spec in football's most famous stand as he chatted with fans before the game and joined in with tributes in memory of the Hillsborough 96 and their families ahead of next week's anniversary.
Bill Shankly famously stood on the Kop with his adoring Scouse public shortly after leaving the manager's hotseat in 1974 but Wednesday is believed to be the first time Dalglish has watched a game from that end of the ground.
Nearly 40 years after the Scot first arrived at Anfield, King Kenny remains arguably the most influential and loved figure in LFC's long, illustrious history.
If you never saw him play and have only ever heard stories about him from your dad, here are seven reasons why Kenny will always be King of the Kop:
He is the greatest player in the club's history
Liverpool Football Club have been blessed with players who scored more goals, played more games and won more trophies.
Billy Liddell's goals were all that kept the Reds out of the Third Division North in the 1950's, Ron Yeats and Ian St John were the lynchpins that helped drag the club out of Second Division to top flight title glory, Phil Neal was a model of consistency and hoovered up medals like they were going out fashion while Ian Rush smashed every goal record to smithereens.
But Kenny lifted everything to another level.
Signed for a British record £440,000 from Celtic in August 1977 to replace the departing Kevin Keegan, Dalglish was faced with the seemingly-impossible task of making the League and European champions even better. And yet he did.
A goal within 7 minutes of his debut at Middlesbrough and another four days later on his Anfield bow against Newcastle was followed by a sublime chipped winner against Bruges at Wembley to retain the European Cup at the end of his first season and the honours just kept flowing.
To say he went on to win two more European Cups, five League Championships and four League Cups, while being not just a great goalscorer but a scorer of great goals, does not come close to doing him justice.
The truly great are capable not just of great deeds but in inspiring them in others as well and Dalglish's presence helped turn an already successful period in the club's history into a period of domination at home and abroad never witnessed before or since. And then he became manager...
He won the Double in his first season as player-manager
Few managers can have taken charge in more testing circumstances than Dalglish did when picking up the reins from Joe Fagan on 30 May 1985, the day after 39 Juventus were killed following violence before the Italian club's European Cup final against Liverpool at the dilapidated Heysel stadium in Belgium.
Dalglish set about trying to rebuild the club's reputation on and off the field in his new role as player-manager, with a resurgent Everton under Howard Kendall (temporarily) holding the balance of power on Merseyside following their league title and European Cup Winners Cup in 1984-85 but Dalglish set about redressing the balance immediately, firing home a stunning 25-second opener in the season's first derby as the Reds won 3-2 at Goodison.
By the time the Blues got revenge in the February return fixture by winning 2-0 at Anfield, Dalglish's men were eight points behind the reigning champions but an incredible run of 10 wins and 1 draw saw Liverpool travel to Chelsea for their final league match of the season knowing victory would see the league title return back across Stanley Park.
Having restored himself to the starting line-up for the season run-in following Paul Walsh's ankle injury, inevitably it had to be Dalglish who grabbed the winning goal at Stamford Bridge with a expertly-taken volley in front of 10,000 jubilant travelling Liverpudlians and he also played his part at Wembley seven days later as the Reds came back from a goal behind at half time to defeat Everton in the first ever all Merseyside FA Cup final and complete the club's first ever League-FA Cup double (and only the fifth ever in history).
He created perhaps Anfield's most exciting ever team
The concession of the title to Everton again in 1987 - along with the departure of star striker Ian Rush to Juventus - meant Dalglish faced a rebuilding job after just two seasons in charge but he managed it with the touch of a master craftsman, creating a side many labelled 'better than the Brazilians'.
The addition of goal poacher John Aldridge halfway through the previous season was supplemented by big money buys for John Barnes (£900,000) and Peter Beardsley (a British record £1.9m) and by the time Ray Houghton (£900,000) arrived in the October, Kopites were purring and waxing lyrical about a level of skillful, attacking football already hitting the heights of many of the club's most decorated and celebrated sides.
The championship was clinched with four games to spare, with the Reds amassing 90 points and bagging 87 goals - scoring four or more on 11 occasions and only failing to net in four matches - with the 5-0 annihilation of closest rivals Nottingham Forest in April being heralded by the legendary Tom Finney as the 'finest exhibition of football he had ever witnessed'.
Inexplicably they were unable to overcome Wimbledon in the FA Cup final to complete a second Double in three seasons but it was 10 months of football played at a pace others could not live with and by players who oozed talent that will live forever in the memories of those lucky enough to witness it.
He was - and remains - a tower of strength following the trauma of Hillsborough
The following season, as another exciting Dalglish side eyed another potential Double, the world of Liverpool Football Club and all connected to it changed forever on Saturday 15 April 1989 when 96 supporters were unlawfully killed at the FA Cup semi final against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough.
With the city consumed in grief, Kenny and his wife Marina became a beacon of light in leading the club through its darkest hour, making themselves available to counsel the bereaved and the survivors, attending funeral after funeral and acting as a dignified tower of strength as the name of the club, its fans and the city in general was dragged through the mud by those looking to shift the blame away from the own failures.
The experience took its toll on Dalglish with the stress it left on him ultimately leading him to resign as manager less than two years later, as he admitted in his autobiography some years later.
"There was a special bond between the club and supporters before that but I think it increased after Hillsborough and in the immediate aftermath there were some very poignant moments and some things which will live in people's memories for ever,' he said.
"This football club has loyal supporters and 25 years ago when they were in a bit of trouble it was our chance, as a club, to show our support for them."
He remains close and supportive to the bereaved families and, was given the Freedom of the City of Liverpool last year in recognition for the role he has and continues to play, but no award could truly do justice to his pivotal contribution in shepherding the club through the aftermath of the tragedy and the long campaign for truth and justice.
He always put the club above himself
The world of top-flight football was a very different place when Kenny returned to the Anfield manager's hotseat in January 2011, almost 20 years after he resigned due to the stress-induced illness caused by Hillsborough.
Roy Hodgson's reign had left the club and its supporters at a low ebb but Dalglish - now closing in on 60 years of age - simply flew back from the family cruise holiday he was enjoying at the time to charge of the Reds' FA Cup tie at Old Trafford because "I have always said if there is anything I could do to help this club I would make myself available. "
The new demands of the modern game with its incessant media demands and pampered millionaire players were a world away from what Dalglish knew as a player and younger manager but he steadied the ship, won some more silverware and helped give the team its identity back.
He always fought the club's corner
His reputation as being gruff and taciturn with reporters did not always do Kenny many favours with the media but his desire to protect Liverpool's interests was always of paramount importance to him.
He famously told reporters they would get more sense of his baby daughter when asked for a response to Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson's barbed comments about decisions he felt his side didn't get after a 3-3 draw at Anfield in 1988
And when reviled S*n editor Kelvin MacKenzie rang him to ask what he could to revive his paper's flagging sales after the boycott following their despicable post-Hillsborough coverage, Dalgish simply told him to print 'We Lied' on the front page in the same way they had splashed 'The Truth' when they printed false and damaging lies about Liverpool fans at Hillsborough, before putting the phone down him.
That smile
Whether scored by himself or one of his players, few football people have exuded more sheer joy at the scoring a goal than Kenny Dalglish.
Despite scoring well over 100 times for both Liverpool and Celtic, his beaming grin gave the impression each goal was just as enjoyable for him as it would have been that very first time and his infectious enthusiasm transmitted itself to those who played with and under him, as well as those watching.
