Matt Maher: Hat-trick heroics were a bit of a flipping pain for Delwyn Humphreys

Through five seasons in the 1990s, Humphreys wrote his name into the history of Kidderminster Harriers thanks to his goals and a somersault celebration which became both his calling card and – as he explains – occasionally a burden.

“Every time I did it, the more people wanted to see it,” he says. “I’d been a pretty good gymnast in my younger days and represented Shropshire as a schoolboy and when I saw Peter Beagrie do a somersault after scoring for Manchester City on TV and I said: ‘I can do that!’

“The first time I did it was in a cup game at Runcorn. I scored in extra-time and I was so tired I nearly fell on my backside!

“That was the thing, it really took it out of you. I used to dread getting hat-tricks, if I’m honest! But I knew if I scored the crowd wanted to see it. It just stuck.”

Humphreys’ most famous somersault came after he scored the only goal in Harriers’ fourth round FA Cup win over Preston in January, 1994.

For David Moyes, captain of the visiting team that day, it was a career low point. When the Scot stands in the dugout at Aggborough tomorrow in charge of West Ham it may feel like the ghosts of the occasion are surrounding him, from the colours of the Kidderminster shirts on the pitch to the presence of Humphreys in the stand behind him, cheering on the hosts.

The faces of Jon Purdie and Neil Cartwright, meanwhile, might send a shiver down the spines of West Ham owners David Sullivan and David Gold, along with Hammers vice-chair Karren Brady.

In January ‘94 the trio were at the helm of Birmingham City when Cartwright and Purdie scored as Harriers came from behind to win 2-1 at St Andrew’s and dump their club out of the Cup.

Truly, tomorrow’s tie is one where the connections extend well beyond the fact it is a repeat of the fifth round encounter from that season, which eventually saw the non-league club’s heroic run brought to an end by a solitary Lee Chapman goal.

Purdie, for example, is hoping to bump into Sam Bowen, a team-mate from later in his playing career at Worcester City, who will be there watching his more famous son, Jarrod, in action for the visitors.

“It’s crazy how these things turn out, isn’t it?” remarks Purdie. “It is surreal in some ways but above all else it is great to see the club doing well again."

There is something fitting too in the fact Harriers are making waves again in the FA Cup at a time when their most successful team has been reunited off the pitch.

The launch last autumn of Purdie’s autobiography was the catalyst for a long overdue reunion, first over beers at The Cross Keys pub, in Hednesford, run by midfielder Chris Brindley and then later more officially at Aggborough.

The setting up of a former players’ WhatsApp group ensured the conversation kept flowing. Recently there has only been one topic to talk about and tomorrow a host of players from the squad which also won the Vauxhall Conference title that season will be in attendance, including nine of the starting XI against West Ham.

“Before we met up I hadn’t seen most of the lads for years,” explains Purdie. “I’m so glad we did it. If we hadn’t it would have been at one of our funerals. We all got on so well at the time but life goes on. You move on, people go elsewhere and the club carries on without you.

“But we had a special bond and some special memories which have been brought to the fore now.”

When assessing reasons for the team’s success, both Humphreys and Purdie immediately point to the man who put it together, Graham Allner. Through 16 years in charge at Aggborough which also included an FA Trophy triumph in 1987 and two Wembley finals, Allner became known as Mr Kidderminster Harriers. The man himself is more modest.

“Well, you always need a bit of luck,” he says. “You need players to gel and you can’t argue against the ones we had. When we got to the fifth round I think there were only about 14 teams in the history of the Cup who’d managed it. You have to say it was a special team and special players.”

“It started with Graham,” says Humphreys. “He believed in us as players, we believed in the way he wanted us to play and most importantly, we believed in each other. As the season progressed that just grew. It didn’t matter who we played, we believed we would win.”

That belief was never more evident than at St Andrew’s, where Harriers battled back to claim victory – their first over a league side in club history – having gone behind to Paul Harding’s ninth- minute goal.

The memory may be a particularly uncomfortable one for Brady as it featured in a BBC documentary charting her life as Blues managing director. “Kidderminster Harriers? Well, we should beat them,” she remarked after the dream money- spinning draw against Manchester United failed to materialise.

Harriers, then a part-time team, had other ideas. Purdie’s 25-yard stunner sent 5,000 travelling supporters in the Tilton Road End into rapture.

“For quite some time, I was very popular with Villa supporters,” he laughs. A former apprentice at Arsenal who made more than 100 appearances for Wolves before moving into non-league, Purdie always believed Harriers were capable of upsetting the applecart.

“Nobody expected us to win going into the Blues game,” he says. “But that is not the way we felt in the dressing room.

“Having been a professional I’d played against some of the guys we faced in that run in youth football and I knew they weren’t much better than some of the players we had. I had a great confidence in our team.”

After Humphreys’ close-range strike, set up by a Purdie cross, had edged Harriers past Preston came the reward of being drawn against the Premier League Hammers and a tie which drew worldwide attention.

“I couldn’t believe how much interest there was,” says Allner. “I was doing interviews with radio stations in Australia and there were so many letters. I even got one from the radio DJ, Kid Jenson, simply saying ‘well done’. I had no idea he’d even heard of Kidderminster!

“For the players I tried to make the build-up as normal as possible and I am sure Russ Penn will be trying to do the same thing. But you have to enjoy it.”

There was another reason why the ‘94 visit of West Ham was a bit more than an ordinary football match for the hosts. Just as now, Harriers’ chief goal for the season was winning promotion except back then it was to the Football League and they had already been informed, two months before, Aggborough did not have sufficient facilities. A big Cup tie was, therefore, a chance to prove a point.

“We wanted to make it as difficult as possible for them to stop us going up,” says Allner. “Not just having the Cup run but being able to handle a tie like that, a Premier League club coming to Aggborough.

“We put up a temporary stand and the attendance was 8,000. We really worked hard to show we could handle league football.”

“The place was rammed,” recalls Humphreys. “Most of us players had never seen a temporary stand like that before. I remember the atmosphere being really intense.”

The match itself is tinged with regret and remembered as a case of what might have been.

“We were unlucky. I thought a draw would have been fair,” says Purdie, who still grimaces when describing the ‘stonewall’ penalty not awarded when he was brought down in the box by Hammers defender Alvin Martin.

“If we’d lost by three or four it is easier to accept,” adds Humphreys. “But to lose 1-0, we were always in the game. Jon was clean through when he was brought down. Little things like that stick in your mind.”

Tomorrow the class of 2022 get a chance to set the record straight by pulling off the greatest result in club history. Purdie, a regular at Aggborough this season, will be watching with hope but as a former team-mate of Moyes from a season spent together at Shrewsbury, thinks the history may not help.

“I think it counts against us in some ways,” he says. “Moysey knows the club and has that history and I can’t see him taking it easy.

“Reading played a lot of reserves in the last round which I thought was disrespectful and they deservedly got turned over. I can’t see him making that mistake.

“But this Harriers team are no mugs. They’ve got match-winners and they are capable of pulling something out of the hat.”

Allner, who has decided not to attend, will be watching from home, keeping his fingers crossed.

“For all of us they were special days, which you treasure,” he says. “When something like this happens and a little bit of the spotlight goes back to ‘94, everyone can enjoy it.

“But now it is all about the current team playing on Saturday. The message is simple: Go and enjoy it and make history. See where it takes you, you just never know.”