English FA Cup: Brentford's prize for beating Southampton in their fifth-round replay next week would be a lucrative quarter-final against the holders Manchester United at Griffin Park.

If the English League One side overcome the Saints, their manager, Martin Allen, will be diving into the Thames, having already swum across the Tees before a fourth-round replay win at Hartlepool and taken a dip in the Solent prior to Saturday's 2-2 draw at Southampton.

Allen, though, is cautious. "Just don't go there," he said when the Thames was mentioned. "We've got our work cut out next Tuesday, but you can't deny it's very exciting. Manchester United would be a sell-out; it would probably be on television. We have financial problems and the revenue would certainly help."

The draw makes it likely Manchester United will reach the semi-finals. And that would mean their Premiership game against Chelsea scheduled for the same April weekend would be pushed to the end of the season, creating the possibility of a grand finale to the title race.

Newcastle's reward for beating Chelsea on Sunday is a home tie against either Tottenham or Nottingham Forest.

"It's a great draw," said Newcastle captain Alan Shearer. "We couldn't have asked for any more than to get a home tie - it's what all the teams left in the draw wanted. It has given us an excellent chance of progressing."

Assistant boss Terry McDermott also admitted he was relieved to have avoided the cup favourites. "Getting a home draw is the most important thing and we'd have taken anyone, but like anyone else we wanted to avoid Arsenal and Manchester United."

He accepted, however, that Newcastle still have a difficult task to reach the semi-finals of a competition that could provide a first major trophy since 1969. "Martin Jol's got them (Tottenham) playing well and winning games and they played good football, so it's got the makings of a good cup tie.

"But it could be Forest because I watched the highlights (of the drawn game) and, with a few minutes to go, they had a great chance to win the tie."

Bolton are at home to either Arsenal or Sheffield United. However, rather than dreaming of Cardiff, Bolton's chairman, Phil Gartside, attacked the club's fans, blaming them for the low attendance of 16,151 for Saturday's fifth-round win over Fulham.

"We dropped the prices quite considerably, we're seventh in the Premier League and in the fifth round of the FA Cup and 7,000 of our own season ticket-holders didn't turn up, so that was extremely disappointing." Asked what he would say to the supporters who stayed away, Gartside added: "Not only did you let the team down, you let yourselves down because people have criticised the team for the lack of support."

Leicester await the result of the Blackburn-Burnley replay to know who they will visit. "Whoever we get, this is a tie we've got a reasonable chance of winning," said their manager, Craig Levein. "We knew it was going to be a difficult match (against Charlton), but I thought we deserved to win.

"To get through to the later stages of the cup so early in my time at this club is quite good. Leicester City are a big club and both Burnley and Blackburn will be saying it's a difficult tie."