Cup dream over for Brentford
Brentford 1 Southampton 3
Harry Redknapp’s Southampton side booked an FA Cup quarter-final with holders Manchester United after edging past Brentford in a full-blooded fifth-round replay at Griffin Park tonight.
A weakened Southampton side had to wait until injury time to guarantee the result, as striker Peter Crouch ended the Coca-Cola League One outfit’s brave challenge.
Brentford raced into a fourth-minute lead through Eddie Hutchinson and were the more ambitious side for long periods of the first half, displaying with some enterprising play.
But Crouch levelled in the 10th minute to keep Saints firmly in the hunt and they grew stronger in the second half with Kevin Phillips – back in the starting line-up after his ankle problem – grabbing a 67th-minute lead before Crouch added a breakaway third.
Saints’ rearguard was under the cosh early on, however. A free-kick from Jay Tabb caused a few anxious moments in the Saints box as the ball fell to an unmarked Hutchinson, but his mis-hit shot bounced off the floor and sailed wide.
The Brentford duo were in the heat of the action a heartbeat later and stunned visiting fans by giving their side the lead with just four minutes on the clock.
Tabb tried his luck from the edge of the area and when the ball rebounded off Saints’ onrushing defence it fell kindly to Hutchinson who had time to tee up his shot and rifle home.
Saints levelled six minutes later when Mikael Nilsson found Phillips who had ghosted into space before testing Bees goalkeeper Stuart Nelson with a tricky shot which he parried into the path of Crouch.
With no-one back to help out the stranded Nelson, Crouch was given the simple task of tapping home and he made no mistake from close range.
Deon Burton saw a promising shot deflect off Calum Davenport into the stands while Tabb found the arms of Saints goalkeeper Paul Smith with one disappointing shot as Brentford regained the upper hand.
Tabb hit a powerful shot off-target following a mazy run into the box from Andrew Frampton which caused panic in the Saints defence as Brentford continued to look the more threatening side in attack.
Play switched from end to end but Saints’ poor final ball was proving costly - hardly a problem affecting the Bees, who created a superb chance for Hutchinson in the 34th minute.
John Salako floated a pass to the Brentford midfielder, who struck the crossbar with a cracking header that had beaten Smith and Burton’s rebound was cleared off the goal-line.
The home side camped themselves in Saints’ half in the last exchanges of the first period but the Premiership club held firm as the Bees piled forward.
Tabb went racing through on goal two minutes after the restart but Andreas Jakobsson tracked him all the way and the eventual shot was hurried as the midfielder made his presence felt.
Phillips steered the ball into the back of the net after picking up Crouch’s pass but the flag went up for offside, ushering in a dull spell in which neither side could make much impression.
Crouch floated a header out of danger when he should have done better before a marauding run from Phillips was halted by a perfectly-timed tackle from Michael Dobson.
Brentford were struggling to find the same amount of space as they had done in the first half and the numbers of chances they were creating dried up as Saints began to gain the upper hand.
The Premiership club soon made their superiority tell by taking the lead in the 67th minute with a slick counter-attack started by Olivier Bernard’s surging run from defence.
It was three against three with Bernard feeding Crouch, whose rapid square ball was met by Phillips at the far post and the former Sunderland marksman bundled home.
Burton was put in one-on-one with Smith but he squandered an almost immediate opportunity to drag his side level before Saints put the result beyond doubt in injury time.
Substitute Neil McCann crossed to Crouch at the far post and with Brentford’s defence still tracking back from an earlier attack, the rangy marksman had no problem finding the back of the net to set up a visit from Sir Alex Ferguson’s men.
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