West Brom booked their place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a resounding victory over a lacklustre West Ham in one of Saturday's all-Premier League ties.
Brown Ideye continued his recent goalscoring form with a goal in each half to add to James Morrison's long-range pearler and Saido Berahino's powerful effort, while the Hammers finished the game with ten men after Morgan Amalfitano was sent off for pushing Chris Brunt's face.
Both managers, despite having one eye on the Premier League, set out with very strong starting elevens. With Darren Fletcher cup-tied, Chris Brunt took the captain's armband for the home side, while Andy Carroll's latest injury meant that Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia started together again for the visitors.
The game started in a perhaps predictably scrappy fashion, with free kicks going to both sides for a series of minor fouls. Stéphane Sessègnon and Aaron Cresswell both missed the target in the opening exchanges, but it was the Baggies who started the brightest.
It was, then, unsurprising that the home side struck first with 20 minutes played. Craig Dawson found himself in some space on the right hand side and drove forwards, before delivering a powerful low ball across the face of goal. Record signing Ideye, enjoying something of a revival under Tony Pulis, was on hand to stab the ball home from close range.
From that point on, the Hammers never looked in the tie and set a dangerous precedent in allowing the home side time and space to shoot from outside the penalty area. Morrison had a top-corner-bound effort saved by Adrián, before Craig Gardner's thunderous effort from wide on the left slammed into the intersection of bar and post. Gardner was denied a clear goal of the weekend contender, but a disjointed West Ham side refused to learn their lesson.
A little over 20 minutes after the first goal, The Hawthorns was on its feet again as the hosts doubled their advantage. Berahino fed the ball to Morrison who took the ball forwards to the edge of the D and unleashed a powerful right-footed effort which swerved away from the goalkeeper and into the top right corner.
The sides went in at 2-0, but the same pattern continued as the second half began. Allardyce's men, renowned for their attacking verve this season, offered little to nothing going forward as West Brom continued to dominate.
With ten minutes played of the second 45, Brown made it three with his second of the game. After a scramble in the penalty area, Sessègnon collected the ball on the right hand side and floated a high cross into the centre of the penalty area. Despite the lack of power on the ball, Brown managed to generate some for himself as he flicked the ball on towards the far post, where it dropped into the bottom corner after a minor deflection from Kouyaté.
Gareth McAuley was forced into action shortly after at the other end, desperately hacking the ball off the goalline after Adrián made a reaction stop from Sakho's bullet header.
Things went from bad to worse for the embarassed visitors with 20 minutes to go as substitute Amalfitano was shown two cards in five seconds, having been brought on as a substitute just ten minutes earlier. Martin Atkinson was in the process of pulling out a yellow card for a foul on Brunt when the Frenchman petulantly slapped his opponent's face away, leaving the referee with no choice but to send him off.
Perhaps inevitably, it was four just moments later as Berahino took his customary spot on the scoresheet. He broke the offside trap and ignored his teammates in the penalty area, instead slamming a ferocious shot past Adrián at the near post.
The home side continued to delight their fans on the attack and could have made it five on more than one occasion, Dawson and former Wigan cup hero Callum McManaman going close from the edge of the penalty area. However, it wasn't to be as three minutes of stoppage time passed without incident, the home crowd gleefully greeting every West Ham pass with a sarcastic 'Olé'.