Academy graduate Jamie Carragher, who had made his Liverpool debut as a substitute against Middlesbrough just 10 days earlier, scored for the Reds.
The strike initiated a 3-0 win over Aston Villa and, on the Scouser's first start in front of the fans that would come to adore him, helped launch an incredible 16-year playing career with Liverpool.
- Iconic images: 'We all dream of a team of Carraghers'
- 40 brilliant tributes to Jamie Carragher
- Jamie Carragher: Born to play centre-half
A one-club man, the Bootle-born defender would go on to achieve some awesome feats in a red shirt. He won the treble in 2001 and gallantly battled through cramp in extra-time against AC Milan to triumph in the greatest Champions League final ever played in 2005.
But a prolific goal return is not among them.
Just four more would follow over the Liverpool legend's 737 appearances for the club.
Jamie Carragher's five goals for Liverpool
His second arrived almost exactly two years later, in a 7-1 win against Southampton, with his third, fourth and fifth coming in respective victories against FBK Kaunas (2005), Fulham (2006) and Middlesbrough (2008).
It's an unusual quirk for a player who began his youth career as a striker - and scored past iconic goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon as an England U16, as he'll happily tell you - before going on to become one of Liverpool's greatest ever defenders.
Used as a utility man in his breakthrough years at LFC, he was featuring in midfield when his perfectly-timed header from Stig Inge Bjornebye's corner delivered that first goal of his career.
"Of all the preparations I'd considered, celebrating a goal was not one of them," Carragher later reflected.
"You spend years dreaming of such a moment, visualising how it will play out and how it will feel. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience you can never explain or understand. Suffice to say, having 40,000 supporters cheering you is spine-tingling."