West Bromwich Albion achieved last night what Manchester United, Chelsea and Middlesbrough were incapable of at the weekend. They saw off supposedly inferior opposition, a game if limited Bristol Rovers side, with a flourish and progressed cosily into the FA Cup semi-finals. No Cup carnage at a bitterly cold Memorial Ground.

Perhaps the scoreline did not do justice to Rovers, the seventeenth-placed team in Coca-Cola League One. Albion, fourth in the Coca-Cola Championship, would not have romped to victory without the lethal force of Ishmael Miller, whose hat-trick went a long way to preventing a rout of the upper classes.

Yet before a ground-record crowd of 12,011, Rovers, even with an intimate knowledge of their mudpatch of a pitch, were never able to match their upwardly mobile rivals, who harbour hopes of promotion into the Barclays Premier League. West Brom’s priorities may lie elsewhere but they were up for the Cup and reached the last four for the first time in 26 years.

“No, it was never a 5-1 game,” Tony Mowbray, the West Brom manager, said. “It was just a credit to the quality of our strikers. We knew all about the Cup upsets – we watched Cardiff beat Middlesbrough – so I didn’t have to remind my players about it.”

The visiting team survived a sluggish start to forge 2-0 ahead, James Morrison scoring from close range and Miller driving home with the aid of a deflection off Craig Hinton. Danny Coles gave Rovers hope, tucking in a flick from Craig Disley, but West Brom cantered clear after half-time.

Miller, retreating from an offside position, took advantage of Coles’s poor backheader and then set up Kevin Phillips to guide in his nineteenth goal of the season. Five minutes from time, Miller, the former Manchester City striker, completed the first hat-trick of his career with his sixteenth goal of the campaign.

Paul Trollope, the Rovers first-team coach, reflected on the club’s first quarter-final in 50 years: “I’m just proud to have got this far. We had some good spells but their finishing was clinical.”

Mowbray’s mind will not stray from the main prize, promotion back into the elite. “The Cup will take care of itself,” he said. “We have great respect for it but we’d all rather be playing in the Premier League every week.”

Bristol Rovers (4-4-2): S Phillips 6 – A Lescott 4, C Hinton 4, D Coles 4, J Jacobson 5 – D Pipe 6 (sub: R Walker, 72min), C Disley 6, S Campbell 6, C Lines 5 (sub: L Haldane, 55 5)– R Lambert 6, A Williams (sub: S Igoe, 82) Substitutes not used: M Green, B Anthony.

West Bromwich Albion (4-4-2): D Kiely 5 – J Hodgkiss 5, L Barnett 6, M Albrechtsen 6, P Robinson 5 – J Morrison 6 (sub: Kim Do Heon, 84) J Greening 7, R Koren 6, C Brunt 6 (sub: Z Gera, 63 5) – R Bednar 5 (sub: K Phillips, 63 6), I Miller 8. Substitutes not used: M Danek, P Pele.

Referee: M Clattenburg

Attendance 12,011

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