When Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool beat Queens Park Rangers 2-1 at Anfield in April 1990 to claim an 18th top-flight title, few of those celebrating at the time realised just what a watershed moment it was.

Not because UEFA president Lennart Johansson had intimated that he may lift the ban on English clubs playing in Europe for the following 1990-91 campaign (that would only happen a season later) but because it would be the last league title the Reds have won to date.

It was a season hit with injuries and inconsistent form, but Dalglish's side had lost just one league game since November as they headed into an Anfield clash with QPR needing four points from their last three games to be certain of claiming the championship ahead of Aston Villa.

After an FA Cup semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace, all thoughts turned to winning back the league title. With Peter Beardsley suffering from injury, Dalglish pulled a masterstroke by signing on-loan Israeli striker Ronny Rosenthal and he was to have a big impact in the title run-in, netting a hat-trick on his first start at Charlton Athletic.

In front of an expectant Anfield crowd, Roy Wegerle put the Hoops ahead but Ian Rush soon levelled the scores in front of the Kop, and when Steve Nicol was sent crashing to the ground, John Barnes kept his cool from the penalty spot to put Liverpool 2-1 up.

News then quickly filtered into the ground that Villa were being held to a 3-3 draw by Norwich City.

If results stayed the same, Liverpool would win the title there and then.

As the final whistle went at Anfield, Villa still had four minutes to play. There was nervous wait as the players took the applause of the fans before confirmation finally came through: Dalglish's side had claimed an 18th top-flight title for Liverpool.

The Reds were presented with the trophy at their next game - a 1-0 win over Derby in which player-manager Dalglish made his final appearance for the club, at the age of 38.