Look out it's golden paws!

Albion fans may have been 'feline' in the party spirit as they celebrated their return to the Premier League.

But one intrepid visitor got a bit carried away, staging a mini pitch invasion of its own before Albion's home clash with Barnsley.

The mysterious moggy showed an impressive turn of pace in the box that would have left Barnsley's defenders trailing in its wake, as the animal appeared from the crowd before bounding around the pitch.

The fleet-footed invader appeared just minutes before the players ran out and drew chants of "sign him up" as stunned Albion supporters watched it run from the Halfords Lane stand to the Brummie Road End.

It showed an eye for goal running from near the dug-out towards the six-yard box, but after eyeing up a pigeon perched on one of the stands the cat quickly scarpered when it was pursued by Albion mascot Baggie Bird.

Forget summer transfer gossip, Albion message boards were today hot with conversation about the one question on supporters' lips today - who brought the cat in with them?

The cat joins an illustrious list of animal invaders of football pitches.

A similar incident took place at the 2009 UEFA Cup final when a bedraggled-looking grey moggy wandered into the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium in Istanbul to catch the action between Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen.

Dogs have also been regular intruders at pitches around the world, including during the World Cup quarter-final between England and Brazil in 1962 when Jimmy Greaves famously pursued a canine visitor.

Albion fans were like the cats who got the cream for the rest of the game as they celebrated promotion in style despite stumbling to a 1-1 draw with a late equaliser from Graham Dorrans.

The end of the match signalled the chance for thousands of supporters to follow in the cat's footsteps, invading the Hawthorns pitch at the final whistle.