West Bromwich Albion overcome an unconvincing start to record an emphatic 7-0 victory over Gateshead in Tony Pulis's first match in charge of the club.
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Saido Berahino struck four times, while further goals from Victor Anichebe, Chris Brunt and James Morrison ensured a comfortable passage through to the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Despite the one-sided nature of the scoreline, it was Gateshead who dominated the opening half hour of the match at The Hawthorns, with John Oster, Alex Rodman and Matty Pattison all having opportunities to inflict a rocky start for the Baggies under new boss Pulis.
However, after seemingly being content to reach the break on level terms, the Premier League outfit took the lead just before half time when Berahino fired home from 10 yards after Michael Rankine had initially cleared the ball off the line.
A minute into added-on time, Berahino turned provider to set up Anichebe for Albion's second, with the Nigerian holding off the attentions of a defender before poking the ball past Adam Bartlett.
Despite the scoreline, Gateshead manager Gary Mills would have been hopeful of a second-half comeback but any ambitions that his side had were taken away immediately after the restart when Berahino netted his second from 20 yards.
It was a sublime finish from a player currently in high demand, and his valuation may have increased further soon afterwards after he completed his hat-trick with a neat finish after being found by Brunt.
Gateshead were shell-shocked and their misery continued on 55 minutes when Brunt latched on to a pass from Georgios Samaras before taking the ball past Bartlett and tapping into an empty net.
The intensity of the contest soon dropped but the goals continued to come for Albion, who netted a sixth when Morrison got on the end of a cross from Silvestre Varela.
Superb reflexes from Bartlett prevented Samaras recording a seventh, but in added-on time West Brom reached that figure as Berahino netted his fourth to cap off a miserable afternoon for the North-East club.
Darren Plant
