Allen's braves can match my heroes

The former centre-half spent eight seasons at Brentford before moving to Wycombe. Along with winning the old Third Division title in 1992, he cites the 1989 Cup run as one of the highlights of his career.

After victories over Halesowen, Peterborough and Walsall, Brentford were handed a plum home tie against Second Division leaders Manchester City in the fourth round.

In appalling conditions, they pulled off a 3-1 upset thanks to two goals from Gary Blissett and one from Keith Jones. It was a similar story at Blackburn in round five when Blissett again struck twice in a 2-0 win.

Evans, 39, who now works as a gym manager, recalled: "Everyone wrote us off against both Blackburn and Man City because they were considered big sides at the time so it was fantastic when we won. Those are the kind of games you look back on most at the end of your career. I still have a photograph at home of the fans carrying me off after the Man City game and the Blackburn win was even better.

"Although we ended up losing 4-0 at Anfield, we actually played quite well in the first half and Richard Cadette was even through early on and could have given us the lead.

"It was still a great day. We took around 6,000 supporters and the Liverpool crowd gave us a good round of applause at the end of the game. Liverpool were top of the league and they had an amazing team, players like Peter Beardsley, John Barnes and John Aldridge at their peak.

"As a centre-half, I remember my plan was to give someone a whack early on just to show the rest of our players they were only flesh and blood.

"Unfortunately, Liverpool's onetouch passing was so quick I couldn't get near them. It took 30 minutes before I finally stamped on Beardsley but by then it was too late. Maybe we gave them too much respect."

Evans believes there is little danger of the 2005 Brentford falling into the same trap, particularly given the performance at St Mary's and the nononsense approach of their manager.

He added: "Martin wears his heart on his sleeve. I remember playing against him for Brentford at West Ham once. He went in late on our goalkeeper, Graham Benstead, and it ended up with me grabbing him by the throat. We shook hands after the game, but the West Ham fans weren't happy and I was advised to have a police escort to the team coach."

Even if Brentford lose tonight, Evans reckons Allen's team will still have benefited greatly from two encounters with a top-flight team.

He added: "A Cup run is no fluke, you need a good side and these Brentford players will draw strength from the experience. A couple of seasons after our Cup run we got promoted and it was pretty much the same team. Perhaps they can do the same.

"Also it's a chance for players to shine. Andy Sinton was in our team in 1989 and got a big move to Queens Park Rangers on the back of the Cup run. Gerry Francis was at a couple of the games and decided to come in for him. He went on to play for England."

Brentford v Southampton, Griffin Park, tonight, 7.45pm