HOW does Kenny Dalglish know when he’s dreaming?

This is a man, nay a King, who led and continues to lead an extraordinary life which has been filled with iconic moments, so many in fact that in a small room at Hampden Park when he is asked to talk about one of his arguably top three greatest days, his truthful answer is: “I don’t remember a lot.”

Funnily enough, if you asked anyone else who was there they could recount every second.

Well, it was 30 years ago next month when Anfield became a a small part of Scotland and big part of Scottish football folklore.

The national team needed to win their final two qualifying games to reach the World Cup – sound familiar? They had beaten Czechoslovakia and then faced Wales who made the decision to move the game from Cardiff and Wrexham to the home ground of Liverpool, which two months earlier had become Dalglish’s new home.

And if you are going to have some Saturday nostalgia then, ach, it might as well be the best kind.

“I remember someone thinking there was going to be a big Welsh support there,” recalled Dalglish. “We had a bit of carry on with Joey Jones and John Toshack in the build-up about that.

“I just remember the thousands and thousands of Scotland fans who were there. The car park was packed, not with cars, but Scottish punters. Unbelievable. I don’t know how many of them managed down the road.

“There’s always a magic in the final game that confirms your qualification for a World Cup and it would be nice to have another one of them to look forward to, but certainly in days gone by it was always memorable.

“They were supposed to play the game at Cardiff Arms Park, but it was being renovated and they didn’t think Wrexham would be big enough so they moved it to Anfield. Not even Anfield was big enough for all of our punters.”

Don Mason scored a penalty – and what a blatant one it was – to put the Scots ahead in the game.

“We should have had a penalty in the first half when Dai Davies brought me down,” said an adamant Dalglish. “I don’t know what happened with big Joe Jordan, I still can’t see it, even on the television now you can’t see what happened. Big [Alan] Roughie had an unbelievable save from a John Toshack volley.”

And then came Dalglish’s superb header from a Martin Buchan cross which sent an entire nation into raptures and Scotland to Argentina.

“It was unusual for Martin to be so accurate! It wasn’t as if it was directed,” said Dalglish with a smile.

That was then and this is now. Scotland have the double-header with Slovakia on Thursday and then Slovenia on Monday, home and away respectively. Win both and Gordon Strachan, against huge odds, will have taken us to the World Cup play-off.

“You only get there if you deserve to get there and at the moment, for this one anyway, wee Gordon and the team have given themselves a fantastic chance and opportunity,” said Dalglish, who played in three World Cups with injury robbing him of a fourth.

“If we hadn’t lost the last-minute goal against England – it wasn’t even the last minute, it was the last second – that would have made a helluva difference. But we have two big games now.

“We played really well in Lithuania to win 3-0 and we were thoroughly professional against Malta. They only gave us one fright – near the end. The big result was against Lithuania, and we got it. The next two will decide.

“My gut feeling? That doesn’t win you anything, it’s what you do on the pitch. And they’re certainly giving everyone a huge lift by getting this close because they were written off.

“When you think the last qualification for the Euros, we had Ireland, Poland and Germany in our group and they all got to the last 16 and we didn’t do too badly against them. We took four points out of six against the Republic, for example.”

Scotland won’t be at full strength come Thursday night in the must-win match against the Slovaks but one key man, who has a fan in Dalglish, will be Andy Robertson who joined Liverpool in the summer for £10million.

The greatest ever Red has liked the look of the left-back so far and tipped him for great things.

“Andrew has done very well, he got off to a great start. It is up to him how he takes it forward,” said Dalglish. “Everybody at Liverpool will be on his side, they will be helpful and he just has to settle down.

“He did well when he went to Hull from Dundee United and then I’m sure Liverpool were looking at him for a while. He has come in and it has not fazed him. He must feel very comfortable with the people that are there, they have accepted him into the fold and he has settled in their house.

"He will be good for Liverpool and Liverpool will be good for him.”

For Scotland, Dalglish played with Gordon McQueen, Alan Hansen, Richard Gough and, the best of all, Willie Miller. What his old pal Strachan would give for one of these guys.

“Where are all the centre-backs?” asked Dalglish. “Tell me some good ones because if there are some good ones out there that transfer record will be getting busted.

“We have a bit of experience there at the back which does help, but you can’t find centre backs. They don’t produce them like they used to.”

Nobody produces a Kenny Dalglish’s any more. Now that is a tragedy.

*Kenny Dalglish was speaking at the SFA Grassroots Awards supported by McDonald’s at Hampden Park. Find out more about all the winners at mcdonalds.co.uk/awards”