Mark Allen can eradicate black ball heartache by winning the world title, says Ken Doherty
Former world snooker champion Ken Doherty has advised Mark Allen to "get back on the table" in his quest for Crucible glory after his heart-breaking semi-final defeat in Sheffield earlier this month.
Allen had his last-four match against Wu Yize at his mercy when he got on top of an error-strewn 32nd frame and required just the black off its spot to wrap up a 17-15 win and seal his first final appearance.
But incredibly Allen rattled the pocket, leaving Wu an unexpected chance to haul level at 16-16 and then after easing into a 47-point lead in the decider, an unlucky split on the reds left Allen out of position and ultimately let in the nerveless 22-year-old to cue up a brilliant 71 clearance to win 17-16.
Wu then held his nerve to win another final-frame decider against Shaun Murphy in the final to become world champion for the first time.
Allen was understandably gutted after his near miss and Doherty, who was world champion in 1997, says the Antrim man will only get over that experience if he can land the sport’s biggest prize.
Speaking to the Off The Ball Daily+ Podcast, the ‘Darlin of Dublin’ said: “He's going to have to live with it. Just get back on the table, back on the circuit.
“I think until he get his hands on a world championship trophy... he'll have that remembrance of that miss for the rest of his life.
“The only way that he can eradicate those bad memories is win the world championship next year or in the next couple of years, but he'll have a battle on his hands because you've got Wu Yize, you've got (Xhao) Xintong, and you've got another host of young players coming through as well as the likes of the (Mark) Selbys, and the Judd Trumps, and the Kyren Wilsons, the Shaun Murphys of the world.
“Even Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins and Mark Williams - they're going to be around for the next couple of years, so he's going to have a lot of sort of competition to contend with.”
Doherty certainly has experience of missing the final black as he famously failed to sink the last ball to compile a maximum 147 break during the 2000 Masters final at the Wembley Conference Centre in London against Matthew Stevens.
The Irishman had never made a maximum in professional competition, and the prize for the feat of snooker perfection was an £80,000 sports car.
He reflected: “I missed a black off the spot not too dissimilar to that one, for a 147 in the Masters back in 2000.
“People will always remember that, and if you look on YouTube, it's under the headline 'nightmare miss by Doherty', and it was a nightmare.
“People always remind you about it, and I'm sure they'll remind Mark about it until he gets his hands on a world championship for sure.
“They'll always stop me and say 'I remember you won the world championship in 1997, but remember when you missed the black for the 147'.
“They'll always try and bring up the bad stuff as well, and I'm sure it's going to happen to him (Mark Allen) unfortunately.”