Brentford Cup ticket blunder

A ticket fiasco will force hundreds of loyal Brentford fans to miss the club's biggest FA Cup game for 16 years.

Brentford's entire 3,200 allocation for Saturday's fifth-round clash at Southampton sold out in three hours after going on general sale yesterday morning.

This has left dozens of seasonticket holders, supporters' trust members and fans who made the 500-mile round trip for last weekend's fourth-round replay at Hartlepool with little hope of making it to St Mary's.

A Brentford spokesman said: "We wish to apologise to all supporters who were unable to purchase tickets. Demand outstripped supply. Representations were made to Southampton for further tickets but these were declined."

The surge in interest in Martin Allen's side took club officials by surprise. They tried desperately to persuade the Premiership outfit to increase the allocation.

Despite a 32,000 capacity, Southampton refused to budge, claiming they have already sold seats for the block adjacent to the away end so cannot let Brentford fans sit there for security reasons.

Southampton also point out that Brentford turned down the offer of a 4,750 allocation following the fifth-round draw two weeks ago.

To comply with Football Association rules, a 15 per cent allocation must be offered to every visiting team, but Southampton put Brentford in a tricky situation by adding a prohibitive restriction. The 4,750 allocation was made available on a guaranteed-sale basis, which meant Brentford had to pay for a proportion of any tickets they couldn't sell. In contrast, the 3,200 allocation was 'sale and return', meaning no risk for the League One club.