SAINTS are bracing themselves for one of their lowest ever St Mary's crowds after being forced to keep high ticket prices for the FA Cup fifth round tie with Brentford or Hartlepool.

Just 16,000 tickets have so far been sold and the club are expecting that to increase to a maximum of 22,000 by the time the last-16 tie kicks off.

Fans are being asked to pay up to £25 a seat to watch Saints in action against a League One club after their opponents REFUSED to let them reduce the admission prices.

FA Cup rules state that the two clubs - or in this case three with Brentford and Hartlepool today staging a replay to see who will get through to the tie at St Mary's - must agree on the prices with both sides taking 45 per cent of the proceeds and the other ten per cent going to the FA.

Saints wanted to slash prices like they did for the Colchester Carling Cup earlier this season but League Two rivals Brentford and Hartlepool objected and actually wanted the prices to be HIGHER than they are.

Saints ticket office manager David Luker said: "The prices will probably have an impact on the attendance.

"The tickets go on general sale on Monday but we are currently expecting about 20,000-22,000 on the day.

"We went into the negotiations over the ticket prices with some very low prices because we know people will be put off coming by what they may see as lower quality opposition than in the Premier League.

"This case was particularly difficult because we had to negotiate with two clubs so the tickets could go on sale.

"From their point of view, the more money they can generate from the game the better. But we know from our experience that with higher ticket prices for a game like this, some people will stay away."

Adult prices for the FA Cup tie are £25 for adults in all areas of the ground, £15 for teenagers and seniors and £10 for juniors.

The fourth round tie against Pompey was also £25 for adults, apart from centre stands, £18 for teens and seniors and also £10 for juniors.

And for the Cup tie against Colchester, Saints slashed their prices to just £12 for adults, £5 for seniors and £1 for juniors and, as a result, attracted more than 20,000 despite it not being as glamorous a competition and a midweek game.

The club's lowest home attendance since moving to St Mary's is 16,603 for the Carling Cup tie with Tranmere in September 2002.

Saints Under-18s are sweating on the fitness of David McGoldrick ahead of their FA Youth Cup fifth round tie against Arsenal at St Mary's on Tuesday (7pm).

Yesterday they notched their 20th league victory of the season in 21 attempts, a 2-0 win at Fulham, but lost striker McGoldrick in the process. McGoldrick suffered a knee injury after being brought down by the goalkeeper in the first half.

And he had to come off immediately after dispatching the resulting penalty.

Saints went on to win 2-0 thanks to a second-half tap-in from McGoldrick's replacement, under-16 Portugese striker Aristotles de Carvalho.

Coach Georges Prost said: "We may have to wait until Monday before knowing if David will be okay to play against Arsenal.

"But we have a strong enough team to give Arsenal problems without David if we play our usual football."

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Daily Echo, Saints' relegation clash with West Brom at The Hawthorns WILL be played on Tuesday, February 22 (7.45pm).

Championship side Stoke City have taken Saints striker Kenwyne Jones on a month's loan.