Paul Trollope said he was proud of his players after seeing the club's FA Cup run brought to an end this evening.

Rovers were thumped 5-1 by West Bromwich Albion at the Memorial Stadium as the Baggies secured a deserved place in the competition's semi-finals.

The opening 45 minutes of the contest had been a largely even and absorbing affair, but the second half saw the Championship side's class ultimately prove too much.

"I'm proud of the players," Paul told bristolrovers.co.uk, "It wasn't to be for us this evening, but we've done well to get this far in the competition and today we came up against a very good team who deserved to go through.

"The scoreline was a bit harsh in the end, but their finishing was clinical throughout the match and they looked a threat all evening. We were well in the game in the first half, and we had long spells of possession and if we had scored again after making it 2-1 it could have been a different story.

"At half-time we said to the players that we needed to attack them, but we didn't want to lose our shape because they could be devastating on the counter. When they made it 3-1 we left ourselves a bit exposed, and they punished us.

"I'm not going to criticize the players because they've done fantastically to get this far, and I'm very proud of some of the play we've had. The endeavor and application we showed was very good, but unfortunately they were the better side."

One of the big turning points of last season was the 3-2 defeat to Doncaster Rovers in the final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, and Paul hopes today's result can help spur his team on in a similar way.

"We've got two big games coming up this week," he said, "We've dropped down to 17th in the league, and that's not where we want to be.

"When we come back into work on Tuesday we need to make sure we're ready for the remainder of the season, because we've got a lot of games in hand and there are plenty of points to play for.

"Our league form has been decent and we haven't lost many of late. We've got a good confidence about us, and we can't let this result worry us.

"Results like tonight's can work in two ways, and one thing we don't want to let happen is for the season to fizzle out. We need to pat ourselves on the back for reaching the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, and look at what can still be achieved in the league if we put our minds to it."