A GOALLESS draw in the FA Cup away from home and it's fair to say Hartlepool United weren't referring to the Boston Book of FA Cup Etiquette.

Following the round three shut out at Victoria Park on January 8, Boston spent the immediate aftermath celebrating in the dressing room, believing their job was done.

Getting Pool to the poky confines of York Street was their aim and they were confident of victory next time out.

But, in the end, their celebratory high fives worked against the League Two team.

The reaction angered Pool, they didn't forget and it formed more than part of their pre-match build up for the replay victory.

So, after Saturday's shutout at Brentford there was little in the way of reaction. "Job done? Not even half of it" was the educated opinion from the Pool camp.

Pool are in the fifth round draw today and now the teams meet again at Victoria Park on Saturday, February 12.

Whatever happened to the days when replays were played 72 hours after the initial skirmish, when the fire and feeling from the first enounter still burned?

England play Holland a week on Wednesday, so the FA, in their wisdom, decided that all replays would be played on the Saturday.

And since when have international call-ups ever affected Pool or Brentford?

Pool's league game with Peterborough, booked in for Friday, February 11 is off, leaving Pool with at least one more game in hand on their promotion rivals.

The weekend's league results went in Pool's favour - the five teams involved in the play-off and promotion chase who played all failed to win - and Neale Cooper's side have a five-point advantage, with two games in hand, over Bristol City, the team directly outside the top six.

Those games in hand are, of course, against Luton and Hull, but both are showing signs of fatigue and pressure.

Pool, on the other hand, are getting stronger.

It's now 12 games without defeat, six clean sheets and only five goals conceded since December 11. Only two of those were given away in January.

And that's surely enough for Cooper to win the manager of the month award, which will be announced later this week.

Mike Newell, two years ago, was the last Pool boss to win the honour. Alan Murray, 12 years ago, was the last manager to take Pool into the fourth round of the FA Cup.

No-one has ever taken Pool into round five.

"The job is half done,'' insisted Cooper. "I said before the game, in the teamtalk at lunchtime, that we would have a battle on our hands.

"We got through a similar situation to win at Boston and, while this wasn't a glamour tie in the fourth round of the competition, it was a tough one.

"We are still in the draw, which is the main thing for me. Now they've got to come to our place and again that will be a difficult one for us.

"Last year they came up and beat us in the league. But we know how strong our home form is and we will be able to take the game to them a bit more and hopefully we can cause them problems.''

Dimi Konstantopoulos kept his tenth clean sheet in 19 games and, while Pool might not have fired on all cylinders as an attacking unit, the defensive line was as strong as ever.

Cooper said: "We defended well at the back.

"Dimi was excellent again, maybe a couple of his kicks could have been better, but it was a very tricky surface, it was cutting up all over the place.

"And it wasn't the kind of surface where you could get the ball down and pass it about easily.

"We did it a couple of times in the first-half and looked good for it, but they were strong in the central midfielder area and they had the lad (Jay) Tabb, who looked lively.

"To go to Brentford and draw in the cup is a big result for us, there was a big crowd, but it was exciting and that's what this competition is all about - we are just very pleased to be in the draw for the fifth round.

"The replay will be a hell of a game, it will be a fireworks game, a rematch of this one. It will be hard, but we will look to play like we can at home.''

Only one place and two points separate the sides in the league table and this was a tight affair.

Brentford, 11 wins at Griffin Park - including a last-gasp victory over Pool in October - had the game's clearest chance.

Jack Ross stretched to head a long ball fro mJohn Salako, but it only landed into the path of Isaiah Rankin. He turned Ritchie Humphreys inside the area and looked certain to score.

But Konstantopoulos stood his ground and placed some doubt into Rankin's mind.

When he eventually decided what to do and skirt around the big keeper, Nelson rushed in and swept the ball from his toes.

Antony Sweeney's shot was deflected wide before Joel Porter and Adam Boyd linked up like they can in a sweeping move.

Porter, under pressure inside his own half, turned away, raced from his opponents and fed Boyd. His ball was a touch too far wide for Boyd and he had to worm his way into the penalty box and by the then he was crowded out.

A late chance for Sweeney, when he passed to Porter on the edge of the area, aside and that was the extent of Pool's chances.

Tabb's shot was diverted onto the outside of the post by a Pool shirt and Konstantopoulos denied the same player with a stretching stop.

Result: Brentford 0 Hartlepool United 0.

Read more about Hartlepool here.