Liverpool 1985-86: Mark Lawrenson on doing the double with Kenny Dalglish

“He pied us off straight away.”

That’s how Mark Lawrenson remembers the transition of Kenny Dalglish from dressing room mate at Liverpool to successful player-manager.

At 34, Dalglish stepped up to succeed Joe Fagan for the 1985–86 season and delivered the club’s only league and FA Cup double at the first time of asking.

Just for good measure, Scotland’s most capped player also banged in the goal that secured the title.

It all sounds like plain sailing but Lawrenson recalls heated on-field arguments and a suddenly curtailed social life, along with all of the joyful celebrations.

“Me, Kenny, Alan Hansen, Ronnie Whelan and occasionally Gary Gillespie, we all travelled in together,” he told the BBC podcast Sacked in the Morning. “Then there was none of that.

“The problem for us was that we all lived in Birkdale – eight or nine of us.

“We soon realised we couldn’t go out because everyone would tell him, ‘we saw him in the bar on Thursday night’. It was a nightmare.”

According to Lawrenson, 67, Anfield great Dalglish was not one for a night on the tiles as a player and certainly not as the boss.

“He always had an afternoon kip and hardly ever took a drink,” said the former Match of the Day pundit.

“On the pitch, he was fearsome, he took no prisoners.

“Me and Hansen used to fall out with him on a regular basis.

“He was so brilliant at holding the ball up, he had eyes in the back of his head.

“You try and thread it through and it might have a bit of a wobble on the way. He’d deal with, then he’d give you a look and it would be effing this and effing that.

“We had some proper swearing at each other, then we’d walk off and he’d come over and shake your hand, ‘well done lads, another win’ and it was gone and forgotten.”

There were lots of wins in that memorable season, with Dalglish coming up with the only goal away to Chelsea on the last day of the league, a game Liverpool needed to avoid defeat in to finish on top.

It was pretty special too, as he took the ball on his chest before crashing home a volley.

“It was an unbelievable goal,” said Lawrenson. “Only he could score the winner in the double year.”

Seven days later, Lawrenson made his 58th appearance of the campaign, alongside Dalglish, as Liverpool came from behind to beat Everton 3-1 in the FA Cup final.