Hendrie, 48, who made 308 appearances for Aston Villa between 1994 and 2007, was working for the club's in-house television channel when he was caught on camera leaping up and down on the touchline, gesturing towards the away end and holding up four fingers to indicate the scoreline before pointing to the digital scoreboard.
Footage shared on social media by Football Away Days showed stewards approaching Hendrie and directing him behind the advertising hoardings. He did not appear troubled by the intervention.
Since retiring from playing in 2019, Hendrie has been a regular pundit on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday.
His behaviour divided opinion online. Some supporters described the scenes as classless, while Villa fans — the majority — found his antics entertaining and christened him a legend. The exchange generated more social media engagement than several of the goals.
Villa's victory — which overturned a one-goal first-leg deficit to advance 4-1 on aggregate into the UEFA Europa League final against SC Freiburg in Istanbul on May 20 — also attracted a notable guest. Prince William was seen celebrating wildly in the stands as the goals went in, dancing along to Sweet Caroline as Villa Park reached full volume.
Hendrie played a bit part in Villa's most successful periods under John Gregory and Graham Taylor and was part of a squad that narrowly avoided relegation on multiple occasions before the club's modern transformation under head coach Unai Emery.
On Thursday, he was every bit the fan. The stewards had other ideas — but not before the message to the Nottingham Forest end had been delivered, repeatedly and enthusiastically, in front of several thousand witnesses.