The Scot was the midfield inspiration behind the Reds winning the treble of FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup before adding the European Super Cup and Charity Shield a few months later.

McAllister plans to put that to good use when the League One promotion race, after a gruelling 46-game season, effectively becomes a knockout competition with four sides battling it out for a place in next season's Championship.

Leeds host Carlisle United in a semi-final first leg tie on Monday in front of what seems certain to be a sell-out crowd before making the return trip to Brunton Park four nights later.

McAllister said: "It is Cup tie football now with a home and away leg. So, I will look to the experiences I had under Gerard Houllier in all those fantastic Cup runs.

"I have had to look from the outside at the play-offs over the years because I have never been involved, but I know what to expect from being involved in home and away football in the UEFA Cup.

"The message is 'keep going'. Anything can happen in these sort of games. The key point is we do not need to panic if things go wrong early in the first game.

"There has to be calm. We must have an awareness and mental calmness to hit that winning pass. Or to hit that strike on goal.

"I know everyone is up for it, but I want to see a bit of guile and quality."

Leeds, who were boosted yesterday when top scorer Jermaine Beckford returned to training for the first time in almost a month, will be looking to build a healthy lead to take to Cumbria for the return.

To do so, McAllister knows his players must remain focused and that is why he will again put into practice lessons learned during Liverpool's amazing year of Cup success at the start of the Millennium.

The United manager said: "I learned about the importance attached to the games and how important it is to look after all the little details. You try and keep things the same, but because of the importance it is inevitable that things are done differently.

"Tickets are harder to come by, so it is important to make sure we have looked after all these little details before we go into this weekend. We need to be on top of every little aspect.

"Having said that, I am still chasing a few tickets so if you know anyone..."

More than 30,000 tickets have already been sold for Monday's first leg with the club confident last weekend's crowd of 38,256 - the Football League's biggest of the season in all three divisions - will be eclipsed.

Both clubs will go into the tie having won one of the two meetings in the regular season, Carlisle triumphing 3-1 at Brunton Park in November and United hitting back with a 3-2 victory at Elland Road last month.
At that stage, the Cumbrians were still the favourites to clinch second place behind Swansea City only for a late season collapse - John Ward's men picked up just one point from the three games that followed the trip to Leeds - to scupper those hopes.

Nevertheless, McAllister - who was not in charge when the Cumbrians inflicted United's first defeat of the season last November - is expecting a tough 180, or possibly 210,- minutes.

He said: "Carlisle have stumbled a little bit lately, while we are on a good run. But going into a home and away play-off, we know from the past that strange things can happen and that form can go out of the window.

"We have loads of respect for Carlisle, what they have achieved in the last four or five years is fantastic. So, we have to be wary.

"It was an exciting game at Elland Road that, by the end, I thought we deserved to win. But I am sure they will say similar things about the game up there.

"I have watched it (on DVD) and I thought Leeds played very well in the first half but then Carlisle turned it round."

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