"That must be the best goal Anfield has ever seen." Those were the words of Liverpool's most successful manager, Bob Paisley. He may not have been wrong.

Dalglish into Johnson, who swivelled on the halfway line and played a great ball out to Heighway. His brilliant first-time cross was headed in by Terry McDermott. One end of the pitch to the other, and a header to finish it.

Anfield erupted, and rightly so.

Tottenham turned up at Anfield with two World Cup winners. They went back to north London with a beating still talked about among Reds fans almost fifty years later. They were lucky it was only seven.

Why those two World Cup winners were there at all

For nearly fifty years, English clubs had been heavily restricted in signing foreign players from abroad. The two-year residency rule brought in during the 1930s meant most had to live in the country before they could be registered, which made signing one impractical. There were exceptions, including players who already lived here.

That rule was lifted in the summer of 1978. Weeks after Argentina had won the World Cup on home soil, Keith Burkinshaw flew to Buenos Aires and came home with Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa for around £750,000.

It was the story of English football that summer, and not everyone was pleased. The PFA's position was that every foreign signing meant a British professional out of work — two Tottenham players out of a job, in the phrase that stuck. It was raised in the House of Commons.

Liverpool's answer to that same open market had been Alan Kennedy, £330,000 from Newcastle, a British record for a full-back. He was in the side that afternoon. Two World Cup winners against a left-back from the North East.

So this was not just a fixture. It was an early test of the experiment, and it was conducted in public.

The match

Saturday 2 September 1978. Anfield, 50,705 in.

Tottenham had the first chance of the game. Clemence showed why he was an all-time great keeper as Duncan tried to go round him.

Then a mishit shot from Jimmy Case, a great turn, and a finish from Dalglish. Eight minutes gone.

The second was another Case shot, beautifully turned in first time by Dalglish. Ray Kennedy headed the third before the half hour. Half-time, 3-0.

Emlyn Hughes had gone off injured on twenty-five minutes. David Johnson came on for him and scored twice, three minutes into the second half and again just before the hour.

Dalglish was involved in both. His saved shot fell into the path of Johnson for the first. For the second he turned provider, and Johnson put the ball through the keeper's legs.

Souness nearly added another with great skill on the edge of the box and a shot well saved. Johnson was denied his hat-trick by a brilliant clearance off the line. Neal had a penalty after a clumsy challenge on Heighway. He missed it, and got a second go — the referee decided, harshly, that Daines had come off his line early. He scored the retake.

And then the seventh.

Watching it back

My dad tried to get into this game and couldn't. He was ten years old.

50,705 got through the turnstiles that afternoon. He wasn't one of them. It doesn't bother him much — he saw Liverpool win so often over the years that one locked gate doesn't leave a mark.

He was the one who first told me about Kenny Dalglish, when I was a kid. Dalglish was his idol. Him and Souness — he talked about those two more than anyone else from that era.

So I came to this game the way most people my age come to it. Through somebody else's memory, and through clips.

The goal is what it's remembered for, and it deserves to be. But watch the whole ninety minutes and it is Dalglish who takes it over. Even the club's own account of the game puts it plainly: he scored the first two and had a hand in two more.

Two goals. Two made for Johnson. And more besides — a nutmeg on the centre-half and then the ball laid off for Ray Kennedy, chances created for Souness, involvement in almost everything Liverpool did going forward. Five or six moments in one afternoon that would each be the best thing another player did all season.

He had been at Liverpool a year.

The reason it isn't the thing people talk about is that this was normal for him. There was no single moment to cut out and replay, because he did it every week, and the parts he was best at do not survive into a highlights package.

He was not the quickest. He was skilful, and he was clever. The old saying is that the first few yards are in your head, and Dalglish is what that means. He knew where the ball was going before the man with it did.

Kenny Dalglish is Liverpool's greatest ever player and one of the greatest in the history of the English game. Ardiles and Villa were fine players who became loved at Tottenham, and Villa scored the winner in an FA Cup final. They are not that.

Two things were true at Anfield that afternoon, and neither takes anything from the other. Terry McDermott scored one of the greatest goals the ground has seen. And the best player on the pitch was the one who started it.