Mowbray the mope dares to hope after hammering Coventry

He is football's equivalent to Jack Dee, minus the gags.

It was not his idea to order West Bromwich's jubilant players to throw their shirts into the stand holding 6,000 away supporters at the final whistle.

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His assistant, Mark Venus, has some explaining to do to cost-conscious owner Jeremy Peace.

But even Mowbray could not suppress a hint of optimism that the draw will be kind to his players.

Albion are the only club to win promotion to the top flight and lift the FA Cup in the same season — back in 1931.

And of all the teams outside the Premier League left in the competition, West Bromwich are best placed to cause an upset, although Mowbray admitted: "It's going to be very difficult with Manchester United and Chelsea. A draw against either of them would probably be the end of our Cup run. But who would have thought Barnsley would go to Anfield and win?

"If you catch these teams on the back of a Champions League game or building up to a Champions League semi-final, you never know what sort of side they're going to put out and results can be had."

The inside word at The Hawthorns had been that the players fancied this tie. They had given Coventry a four-goal whacking earlier in the season and trumped that total on Saturday.

Skipper Paul Robinson, who swallowed defeat in the FA Cup last four with Watford five years ago, said: "The FA Cup is special. One day, before I hang my boots up, it would be nice to get hold of it. Maybe this is the year.

"When you see so many Premier League clubs knocked out, you have a little glimmer of hope. It would just be nice to have a home tie for a change."

Coventry will be lucky to play at Championship level next season, the way things are going.

That said, Michael Doyle could consider himself unfortunate to be sent off for a challenge on Zoltan Gera.

Until then, Coventry were still in the game after West Bromwich had inexplicably failed to press home their superiority following Chris Brunt's 12th-minute opener.

But once Mark Halsey had shown Irishman Doyle to the dressing room shortly after half-time, Coventry went to pieces.

Roman Bednar rolled in the second goal 12 minutes later and made it 3-0 from the spot.

Gera and Ishmael Miller then added to Coventry's pain. The stadium camera zoomed in on the face of owner Ray Ranson at the end.

It was not pretty.