Fearless Roy Keane stamped on John Barnes and told the Liverpool player to 'f*** off' within five minutes of his Nottingham Forest debut, former team-mate Brian Laws has recalled.
The Irish midfielder was just 19 when legendary Forest manager Brian Clough chucked him in at Anfield early on in the 1990-91 campaign.
Keane had travelled to Anfield with the first-team squad thinking he'd be responsible for collecting kit but found himself starting and wasted little time making an impression.
It ended up being the beginning of a distinguished and often controversial career for Forest and then Manchester United.
Laws, who played behind Keane at right-back that night, has recalled how he thought he'd be practically babysitting the teenager - only to very quickly be proved wrong.
'We were playing Liverpool away, and this young kid was sitting on the bus,' Laws told FourFourTwo.
'Brian Clough would regularly take kids with us to get experience. I don't think anyone spoke to him – no one knew who he was.
'We got to Anfield and, as I thought, he was just pushing the skips into the dressing room and helping to put the kit out.
'Halfway through, he was putting the No 7 shirt out when Cloughie stopped him and said, "Now, son, I want you to try that shirt on."
'We all started laughing, and this poor lad was embarrassed.
'He reluctantly put it on, as though he wanted to get it off as quickly as possible. Cloughie said, "You look a million dollars – you look so good, you're playing".
'We still thought it was a wind-up, but he was deadly serious.
'He said to me, "You look after him: he's playing right wing". I thought, "What? I'm playing against John Barnes, and now I've got a rookie playing in front of me?"
'I introduced myself. I didn't even know his name – I had to ask him. I said, "Look, Roy, keep it simple and I'll try to talk you through it".
'But within five minutes of kick-off, Roy had stamped on Barnes, taken out another player, and when John was on the floor he just went, "F*** off" in his face!
'There were five minutes of me looking after Roy, then he looked after me for the rest of the game.
'He was like a rat up a drainpipe, all over the place. It can be frightening to go out there at Anfield, but he had no fear. He didn't care who he was playing against: he would have a go at them. What a debut.'
It wouldn't be a successful night for Forest, however, as goals from Ian Rush and Peter Beardsley earned Liverpool, who’d finish second in the old First Division that season, a 2-0 win.
Keane’s career was underway though and he would become a regular in the Forest team that season, usurping England international Steve Hodge.
In all, the Irishman played 154 times for Forest and scored 33 goals before joining Man United in a British record £3.75m move in 1993.
Keane, now a popular pundit for ITV and Sky Sports, has previously revealed how he drank 'six or seven pints' the night before his unexpected Anfield debut.
He had played the final 10 minutes of a Forest reserves game off the bench and recalled: 'I went out that night with the players, as you do after a reserve match, I didn’t drink too much – maybe six, seven pints after the game.'