Brentford manager Uwe Rösler gleefully counts cost of Chelsea replay
Victory snatched away but Stamford Bridge replay will generate much needed income
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Your support makes all the difference.Most managers would be distraught at having a historic FA Cup upset snatched from their grasp, but such is modern football that Uwe Rösler admitted he was delighted to have gained a money-spinning replay at Stamford Bridge. Indeed, Rosler is already working out how to spend the proceeds.
"I am slightly disappointed, but everybody is happy to play there – the players, the manager, the fans, the board," said Brentford's manager. The replay could be worth £750,000 to the League One club. "The chairman [Greg Dyke] has told me that money will be available," said Rösler. Promotion to the Championship is Brentford's main aim and Rösler added: "It is a fantastic windfall. Maybe we can get some top players on loan and get our young British players on longer contacts. We have some good players here and we want to keep them for a long time, they are the future of the club.
"The players were fantastic. They have deserved the right to play at Stamford Bridge."
Perhaps with an eye on a Wembley play-off final this season, he added: "The experience will be good for our young players so they can cope with big occasions in the future."
Not that he accepts that Brentford's FA Cup run will be concluded across west London, understandably given Chelsea's anxious home performances under Rafael Benitez. "The pressure will be on them in the replay," said Rösler. "We have everything to win and nothing to lose. We have won already in earning a replay."
The German also accepted Brentford were fortunate in gaining a second chance after Harlee Dean handled Juan Mata's injury-time cross in the penalty area. "There was a football god on our side," he said. "It is a penalty. We have been very lucky, the hand is in a unusual position. But we deserved the luck with what we put in compared to what Chelsea put in. When you compare our running to theirs we put in an enormous amount of work."
Rösler said he thought Chelsea were "vulnerable" but had feared his own team might freeze. "I know how we can play and how hungry we are, but my fear was that we would get carried away by the situation," he added.
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