Altrincham's Wembley aspirations will be tested by one of football's most colourful characters on Saturday after 65-year old Phil Brown took his list of managerial appointments into double figures by emerging as the shock choice to revive Kidderminster Harriers' struggling fortunes.
Rooted to the foot of the Vanarama National League, Kidderminster's decision to dispense with Russell Penn came as no surprise, but replacing him with the veteran former boss of Derby County, Hull City, Barrow and Southend United, among others, took everyone unawares.
For all the attributes that kept making him a candidate for managerial vacancies, Brown's lengthy coaching career will perhaps be best remembered for a half-time team talk that was delivered on the pitch at Manchester City on Boxing Day in 2008.
Trailing 4-0 after an abject first 45 minutes, Hull's players were heading forlornly for the tunnel until Brown marched them back towards one of the penalty areas and sat them in a semi-circle for a finger-wagging dressing-down in front of a bemused crowd and nationwide television audience.
It's a moment he has struggled to live down ever since, especially after Jimmy Bullard recreated it as a goal celebration just days later, but in-form Alty will still be wary of the effect a new manager can have, with Brown's first game in charge being the Robins' Isuzu FA Trophy fourth-round tie at Kidderminster on Saturday.
"It's always difficult when you play a team who have just brought in a new manager," said Alty defender Lewis Baines, who scored one of the goals in an outstanding 3-2 win over third-placed Barnet at The J.Davidson Stadium last weekend.
"Their players will be aware that he will be looking at them and working out what his best line-up is, and they will have a point to prove.
"They will be doing their best to press their claims, and that won't make our job any easier. They made it difficult for us at our place in the league and held us to a draw, so we know we are going to be tested. But it was a brilliant boost for us, winning at Halifax in the last round, and we all want to go one better than last season, when we were so close to reaching the final."
There is a full AltyTV interview with Baines and fellow-defender Jake Cooper on the club's website.
