BRENTFORD boss Martin Allen was full of praise for the attitude of the Saints players last night.

It has been a dramatic run to the fifth round for the Bees, who have endured long trips and several replays before getting knocked out at Griffin Park last night.

Allen played under Harry Redknapp at West Ham and is still in regular contact with the Saints boss.

And he was impressed by the way the Premiership strugglers stuck to their task in the face of conditions they are not that used to at the League One club.

He said: "They've got the goals on the night and you've got to give them a lot of credit.

"Playing against Arsenal at the weekend and being in the middle of a relegation battle isn't easy and the way that they battled against us and stood firm against a terrific Brentford performance, they deserve credit.

"The passion and the power of our players was fantastic but the Premiership boys stood firm and defended valiantly and fair play to them because I honestly thought we were going to win this game.

"I thought they were the underdogs and we were going to beat them.

"But they stood tall and threw themselves in the way of constant pressure."

He added: "I honestly feel their attitude was commendable.

"The pitch was cut up from the rugby, it had been raining all day and the atmosphere was electric.

"It was intimidating and the way our players play isn't like Southampton get every week in the Premiership, but they stood their ground and I respect them for that.

"This was a tough, tough game for them to come and play but they got through and good luck to them."

Allen was still disappointed with his team going out but was pleased they did themselves justice with a battling performance that gave Saints plenty of worries.

"I honestly thought we were going to win the Cup," he said, perhaps tongue in cheek -but then again with Allen, perhaps not.

"If you look at the games we've had to play to get this far in our Cup run, then what a Cup run it's been.

"It's very rare that I'm stuck for words but when I looked at the all the players after the game and saw how exhausted, upset and disappointed they were, then I was.

"But they've made me so happy and so proud."