Albion enjoyed a charmed FA Cup passage on Saturday – but one which carried a far more important message to their promotion rivals.

This is a team which knows how to bounce back.

The Baggies first game at the Hawthorns since that worryingly-inept display against Nottingham Forest offered further proof that head coach Roberto Di Matteo’s quiet, under-stated management style should not be mistaken for one which does not know how to rouse the troops.

Already this season, we have seen Albion come back strongly after hiccups against Barnsley, Swansea and Cardiff but that woeful outing against Forest, which enabled Billy Davies’s team to overtake them in the top three tussle, was the lowest point to date.

So to outplay leaders Newcastle in back-to-back contests since then suggests there is steel tank-lining the soft tones of Di Matteo’s stewardship.

After this victory, his No 2 Eddie Newton offered a glimpse of the soul-searching and tough-talking that had gone on since the Forest nightmare and the two performances against Newcastle have suggested it has been to good effect.

True, Albion needed to be on the right side of some contentious calls by the officials which had Newcastle raging in order to take their place in the last 16.

But, equally, Chris Hughton’s team will now know for sure that Albion have the character, as well as the ability, to pursue them all the way to the finishing line in the main event – the promotion race.

Di Matteo has turned to a five-man midfield supporting a revived Roman Bednar for his team’s immediate salvation and it is working a treat. It is unlikely to be rigidly employed until April or May but it is sure to be retained for the time being, having provided a base for Albion to once again fizz the ball around the pitch with certainty and meaning.

They were much the better team in establishing a 2-0 half-time lead but then had to survive an inevitable, nothing-to-lose comeback from the visitors before the game reached its controversial tipping-point after 68 minutes.

This was the last of FOUR key incidents which all came down in Albion’s favour and had Newcastle fans suggesting referee James Linington and his assistant Duncan Street go the whole hog and don blue-and-white striped shirts. Their complaints were only partly justified.

The first bone of contention came with Albion’s opening goal, awarded after Jonas Olsson ran across his marker to head Chris Brunt’s perfectly-struck flag-kick towards the opposite corner. From his station on the goal-line, Jose Enrique appeared to stop the effort with his thigh but up went Mr Street’s flag unhesitatingly to signal the ball had been over the goal-line.

“How could he possibly see from there?” was the summary of Newcastle’s complaint. But TV replays showed that Enrique was so far back behind the goal-line as to be virtually in the Smethwick End.

So 1-0 to Albion and 1-0 to the officials. Again, it is difficult to support Newcastle’s gripes about the second controversy, the penalty awarded against Tamas Kadar as he quite obviously and clearly pulled back Bednar when the Albion striker caught him napping and inched in front of the defender in the chase for Brunt’s through ball.

The 31st minute penalty was executed with absolute conviction by the seriously-excellent Graham Dorrans and for all Newcastle’s grumbling, the merit of Albion’s lead could not be questioned.

But neither could the threat of visitors’ revival, inspired by Shola Ameobi’s arrival from the bench, as they hunted a way back into the tie prompting flashpoint No.3 – a 58th minute challenge from Dorrans on Ryan Taylor as the attacker moved menacingly into space in Albion’s penalty area.

The referee was on the spot and ruled that Dorrans got enough of old-fashioned, shoulder-to-shoulder contact with Taylor to deny penalty claims – but that was a fairly kind interpretation in Albion’s favour.

An excellent 62nd minute strike from Andy Carroll, after the powerful Jonas Gutierrez had out-paced Gonzalo Jara for the second time in the game, did bring Newcastle back before the final and most controversial incident arrived when Ameobi appeared to be sandwiched by Olsson and Gabriel Tamas as he moved towards goal.

Penalty, screamed Newcastle. No deal, replied the referee. Then no sooner had a relieved Albion contingent celebrated an undoubted let-off then their team had sprung the counter-attacking trap – Taylor chopping down Jerome Thomas as the winger sped on to Robert Koren’s finely-weighted through-ball.

Subsequent attempts to make something of Albion playing on while Ameobi remained injured in the area, as goalkeeper Scott Carson signalled his opponent’s discomfort, were ridiculous.

Albion were up and away and down the other end of the pitch in the blink of an eye. In this age of players feigning injuries to influence officials, games would never finish if they were stopped every time a footballer went down. So back to the moment.

With composure unaffected by the protests which ultimately led to Taylor being sent off, Dorrans deposited his second spot-kick beyond goalkeeper Tim Krul, with subsequent goals from Thomas and then Carroll signalling respectively Albion’s comfort and Newcastle’s spirit of defiance.

Amid all the heated debate triggered by these incidents – and continued by Newcastle coach Paul Barron in “discussion” with Albion fans at the final whistle – the significant points had already been made by Di Matteo’s side.

Dorrans’s continuing creativity is the perfect bridge to the lone-striker role which Bednar is conducting superbly, Thomas’s threat from the flanks is unquestioned and the return of Youssuf Mulumbu and Koren to central midfield has further complemented the strategy.

In short, two games after running to a full stop against Forest, Albion are flowing again.

The fact that they have rediscovered themselves against – so far – the strongest team in their division suggests it is no phoney recovery.