An early goal from Pablo Fornals set the pace as West Ham recorded a comfortable 4-0 win over Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup fourth round.
Andriy Yarmolenko also managed to bag himself his first goal since September as he started up front in absence of the rested Michail Antonio.
Doncaster entered the match three points off the top of League One with two games in hand on league leaders Hull City.
Premier League surroundings are familiar to Doncaster manager Darren Moore who was replaced as West Brom boss by West Ham’s former head coach and player Slaven Bilic.
It took West Ham just 90 seconds to break the deadlock after a brilliant cut back from Ryan Fredericks found Fornals whose half volley nestled beautifully into the back of the net.
A few minutes later the Hammers had a chance to double their lead through Manuel Lanzini after he latched onto Said Benrahma’s through-ball but the Argentine fired wide of the post.
On the 10-minute mark, the hosts missed a golden chance to score a brilliant team goal. It was incisive play from the Irons as Fornals’ cheeky flick looped over the defenders head for Yarmolenko to hit on the volley, but his shot narrowly missed the near post.
West Ham’s second goal had been coming and just before the half-hour mark it duly arrived. Benrahma latched onto a wayward pass from the away side and played Yarmolenko through who did the rest with cool dinked over Doncaster goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe.
Doncaster did have a half chance from a set piece but Joe Wright was unable to generate any power on his header which was straight at Lukasz Fabianksi.
West Ham started on the front foot after the interval and Lanzini had an early second-half chance. The Argentine swivelled on the edge of the box and fired his shot towards the bottom right corner forcing a good save from Balcombe.
Moments later came a defensive calamity from Doncaster’s point of view as defender Andy Butler turned Mark Noble’s in-swinging corner into his own net to extend David Moyes’ side advantage.
Doncaster’s best chance to pull one back fell to Matt Smith who controlled a cross excellently and fired his half-volley goalwards but fortunately for Fabianski the shot struck the crossbar.
West Ham extended their lead to four after a swift counter-attack down their right-hand side resulted in a Fredericks shot which was parried into the path of Adeypo Afoylan to tap home on his senior debut.
With 10 minutes to play David Moyes turned to the bench, handing senior debuts to 17-year-old defender Jamal Baptiste and 22-year-old Nathan Trott in goal.
It was a professional performance from West Ham whose attention will be on Sunday’s game between Manchester United and Liverpool which determines their fifth-round opponents.
Doncaster’s FA Cup journey is brought to a premature end as Moore’s side now turn their focus on their push for promotion back to the Championship.
By Fraser Day
