For 40 minutes the Premier League outfit struggled for a foothold in this tie as their opponents, far from overawed at their illustrious surroundings, were convincingly the better side.
West Brom 7-0 Gateshead
FA Cup Third Round
The Hawthorns
Saturday 3 January 2015
Winners receiver £67,500
But the quality of finishing told and Albion have a man who knows just where the back of the net is.
England Under-21s striker Saido Berahino went into this game with nine goals under his belt and can now boast 13 and an FA Cup match-ball after a four superb strikes.
While his second and fourth, both superb 20-yard curlers, will be replayed often, all four were excellent finishes and underlined the development of a player who was called up to Roy Hodgson’s last England squad of 2014.
This should not take away from the part Gateshead played in this fixture.
The North-East outfit attacked from the off and Albion looked shell-shocked early on.
The visitors clearly had targeted free-kicks as an area of vulnerability for Albion and their homework almost paid off 12 minutes in as Michael Rankine found himself free in the six-yard box but could only plant his header into the arms of Boaz Myhill.
That spurred the underdogs on and after a series of half chances another wonderful opening presented itself to the man the Heed Army would have wished.
Matty Pattison’s right wing-run stretched the Baggies defence and left space for John Oster on the edge of the box.
But the former Everton man was left with his head in his hands as he skied over.
Gateshead were to pay for such profligacy before the break.
Chris Brunt’s low free-kick was turned goalwards by Graham Dorrans and as Gateshead scrambled to clear his effort, Berahino crashed the rebound into the roof of the net.
Two moments later Berahino turned provider, laying the ball into Anichebe who rolled Clark and slotted home.
Gateshead were perhaps glad of the break to regroup but Berahino showed he was not in a generous mood and had Albion virtually home and dry within 60 seconds of the restart courtesy of a superb curling effort.
His hat-trick was complete nine minutes after it had started as he slotted home Chris Baird’s pull-back and Albion were rampant.
Brunt rounded Adam Bartlett to make it five as Albion began an exercise in shooting practice.
However the home crowd had to wait until late on for more goals to cheer as sub Silvestre Varela set up James Morrison for number six, before Berahino completed the scoring in style in injury time with a superb curling effort.
West Bromwich Albion (4-4-2): Boaz Myhill, Chris Baird, Gareth McAuley, Craig Dawson, Sebastian Pocognoli, Stephane Sessegnon, James Morrison, Graham Dorrans, Chris Brunt, Victor Anichebe, Saido Berahino.
Subs: Georgios Samaras for Victor Anichebe 54, Claudio Yacob for Graham Dorrans 54, Silvestre Varela for Stephane Sessegnon 68
Subs not used: Ben Foster, Andre Wisdom, Youssouf Mulumbu, Brown Ideye.
Goals: Berahino 42, 46, 53, 90, Anichebe 45, Brunt 55, Morrison 79
Gateshead (4-3-3): Adam Bartlett; Andrai Jones, James Curtis; Ben Clark, Craig Baxter, Phil Turnbull, Valnetin Gjokaj, John Oster, Matty Pattison; Alex Rodman, Michael Rankine.
Subs: Robert Ramshaw for Matty Pattison 56, Jamie Chandler for Valentin Gjokaj 60, Danny Wright on for Michael Rankine 68
Subs not used: Jack Wilson, Jon Shaw, Lewis Guy, Tom Allan.
Referee: Andrew Madley.
Attendance: 16,593
Watch the highlights of the Third Round tie at the Hawthorns
