Allner hopes for change of luck

Allner led Kidderminter to three Wembley appearances during his decade-and-a-half in charge at Aggborough.

But his teams never managed a victory beneath the twin towers – a record his former student, Mark Yates, can put right below the arch of the new national stadium on Saturday.

"The one thing we never managed to do was win at Wembley, which is something that the players on Saturday can change," he said.

"We won the FA Trophy in a replay in 1987 at The Hawthorns, which was a great occasion, but it would have been nice to win one of the games at Wembley."

Allner, who managed Harriers from 1983 to 1999 and led them to the Conference championship, experienced a draw at two defeats at Wembley.

They drew with Burton in '87 before winning the replay and they lost at Wembley in 1991 and 1995 to Martin O'Neill's Wycombe and Geoff Chapple's Woking respectively.

But Allner believes he knows one of the secrets to Mark Yates – the man who he made Harriers captain and who now occupies the manager's hotseat – succeeding where he fell short.

"It will be a big thing for the players who have not seen or been to the stadium before and there will be all manner of things for them to take in," he said.

"But in a way that just adds to the enjoyment of the day. I would imagine the place will be on fire on Saturday.

"I remember the Kidderminster end at Wembley in '95 being packed for the Wycombe game, but there will be more still there on Saturday.

"Over the last 20 or 30 years the club has created lots of history but the team this Saturday could take it one stage further by winning.

"They need to concentrate on the game. They need to take everything in and make the most of the occasion, but it is a massive day and the danger is that they will be in awe of the stadium and the occasion.

"The biggest piece of advice I can give them to to go and win the game, and it will be very difficult to play their normal game if they are all looking around at the surroundings.

"There is a danger that you can have players walking around with cameras, looking to find their families and friends in the stand and having half an eye on what is going on around them.

"What they need to do is concentrate on the game and not the occasion, but that can be easier said than done."

Harriers will make their first appearance at the new Wembley almost exactly 20 years after they made their debut at the old one.

It was Allner who masterminded the club's run to the first massive occasion in their history, and he still remembers the day out against Burton as one of his proudest moments.

"The game in 1987 was the biggest one because it was the first one, and funnily enough this game is almost 20 years to the day after that one," said Allner.

"It was May 9, 1987, and it was the first really big occasion in the club's history.

"We had been to the Welsh Cup final the previous year but going to Wembley was easily the biggest day we ever had. Everybody wanted to go to Wembley because the club had never been there before and to get there was such a massive thing for the town.

"I remember us pushing really hard and not being able to get to a winner, and despite going to Wembley three times the one thing we never managed to do was win at Wembley.

"That is the one thing they can do on Saturday that we never did and it would be brilliant if they could take it that one stage further.

"Having said that, by not winning at Wembley we managed to get ourselves and replay and that gave us an unbelievable night at The Hawthorns that none of us will ever forget, so it worked out quite well in the end."

If Allner's first day out at Wembley was his most memorable, the second was hugely significant as it pitted him against a young Martin O'Neill at the start of what would become an illustrious managerial career.

O'Neill's Wycombe side ran out 2-1 winners in 1991 in front of a crowd of 34,842 – a Trophy Final record that will be broken on Saturday, 16 years on.

The defeat hurt, but what happened to his team in the aftermath of their Wembley appearance was a bigger disappointment.

"The game in 1987 was the best because we hadn't been there before and the first is always the best, but strangely the game in 1991 was probably a bigger game.

"We had become a bigger club by then and Wycombe were certainly a big club in non-league terms at the time.Martin was becoming quite high-profile in terms of non-league managers and that just added to the occasion.

"It was a strange one really because we had some very good young players at the club around that time and we had high hopes of them. But for whatever reason it just never happened. We lost Paul Jones to Wolves and Steve Lillwall to Albion and the team gradually broke up."

Another four years passed before Allner's third and final Wembley appearance, and the one that left him at his lowest.

The manner of the 2-1 defeat to Woking in 1995 left him crushed, and he believes it is a salutary lesson to the team of 2007.

"We had had some pretty big battles with Woking and their manager, Geoff Chapple, and me were pretty close friends by that stage so that added an extra element to it," said Allner. "We went to extra time and we thought we probably did enough to win the game in that period.

"Then we lost Chris Brindley with a broken arm and they went and scored two minutes from the end to beat us.

"That was probably the lowest point in the whole Wembley experience for me.

"That's why I say, the players should take it all in on Saturday, but they will enjoy it a lot more if they win."