POLICE were today confident of preventing trouble at Saints' FA Cup clash with Brentford amid fears of thousands of away fans without tickets descending on Southampton.
The Daily Echo understands that 55 police officers will be on duty for Saturday's fifth-round tie at St Mary's - the normal quota for an FA Cup game.
A police spokesman today appealed for ticketless Brentford fans to stay at home after Bees' boss Martin Allen claimed as many as 6,000 could travel to Southampton.
She said: "We are aware of ticketing problems for the match.
"We have a full police operation in place and will deal with any problems if they arise. We have no control over ticket allocation.
"We are advising all Brentford fans that no tickets will be on sale to them on the day, so if they do not have tickets they should not travel."
The spokesman condemned Martin Allen's prediction of potential crowd trouble as "not helpful".
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