West Bromwich Albion 3 - Newport County 0

Summary:

With the future of Nicolas Anelka still in doubt, Albion are stepping up their efforts to find a new striker before the end of the transfer window - but one answer just might have been sitting under their noses all along. Ben Foster's broken foot meant that Luke Daniels kept his place in goal while new signings Diego Lugano and Scott Sinclair made their debuts as Steve Clarke also brought Chris Brunt, Goran Popov, Craig Dawson and Matej Vydra into the starting lineup.

But the star of the show was undoubtedly Saido Berahino, who crowned his home debut with a hattrick to power Albion past Newport County and into the next round of the Capital One Cup with ease. After just six minutes he neatly put away Sinclair's through ball to give Albion the lead, and twenty minutes later Graham Dorrans fed him on the edge of the box to blast a superb shot into the net. When Dawson was fouled in the box ten minutes later, Berahino claimed the matchball by putting the game beyond Newport's reach from the spot.

Vydra made way for Markus Rosenberg just before half time due to injury, and James Morrison replaced Claudio Yacob in the second half before another youngster, Cameron Gayle, replaced Billy Jones to make his debut - but the hard work had already been done. Albion's squad is suddenly looking a little healthier than many may have feared.