Albion hit the goal trail last night - and in some style.

Alexis Mac Allister, Bernardo and Viktor Gyokeres all scored their first for the club and Alireza Jahanbakhsh added another cracker to sweep aside Portsmouth in the Carabao Cup.

It was some way to show off the options Graham Potter has in his squad.

As expected, Potter made 11 changes to the side which kicked off the Premier League opener versus Chelsea.

But the starting line-up still had a lot of experience.

Summer signing Joel Veltman was handed his competitive debut and compatriot Davy Propper also saw action after an Achilles injury.

Potter selected a full bench of prospects who play – or have played – for the under-23s.

Jayson Molumby, best known as a central midfielder, was handed the right-back berth with Portsmouth only made three changes to the side which started the opening 0-0 draw with Shrewsbury in League One.

Among the host of players looking to take their chance was Jahanbakhsh and he might have handed Albion a fluke lead in the first minute.

After nice ball movement, he pulled away to the right and saw his intended cross flick over via the top of the crossbar.

Jahanbakhsh operated down that right flank with young Swedish international Gyokeres taking the central role.

Gyokeres was often used on the left of the attack in his days in the under-23s.

But he is a traditional type centre-forward and almost struck on seven minutes after magic from Mac Allister.

His dummy opened up space for Gyokeres, whose shot was well struck but too close to Craig MacGillivray.

Was there an argument Gyokeres should have buried the chance?

Bernardo, following up, certainly should have done better. The keeper’s parry went straight to the Brazilian, who mishit his shot off target as defenders scrambled back to cover the goal.

Pompey settled and might have been gifted the lead on the quarter-hour when Dan Burn turned a free-kick, driven low and deflected, narrowly past his own far post.

Sean Raggett’s awful back pass gave Gyokeres his next sniff of goal.

This time MacGillivray was out quickly to nudge the ball away from him and also got a touch to Pascal Gross’s follow-up before Jack Whatmough headed away from just in front of goal.

Dale Stephens hit the post from five yards outside the box midway through the half with a low shot which curved away from MacGillivray’s dive after Jahanbakhsh teed him up.

Bernardo was striding a long way forward on a regular basis.

His chipped cross after getting to the byline on the half hour was excellent but Gross did not get good contact on his half-volley and guided the ball wide of the far post.

The breakthrough came in the 38th minute when Mac Allister opened his account.

Portsmouth were guilty of giving the ball away and were punished in clinical style.

The Argus:

Jahanbakhsh stood up a cross over the more obvious target of Gyokeres to Mac Allister coming in behind him - and his header gave MacGillivray no chance.

Portsmouth had had their moments and Veltman was involved in an extraordinary piece of defending to preserve the lead.

He did well to head clear in front of goal, took a whack for his troubles and was down holding his head when he unwittingly blocked the follow-up shot from Marcus Harness.

Albion doubled their lead in the 54th minute with an impressive addition to the Jahanbakhsh collection.

The Iran international does not score many but they tend to be special.

Here, his intelligent turn and pass got Albion moving on the counter.

Mac Allister and Gyokeres played clever parts in the move before working the ball back to Jahanbakhsh.

From just inside the box and to the left of goal, he switched the ball to his right foot and crashed a fierce drive high past McGillivray.

The Argus:

If that wasn’t game over, it was three minutes later as Bernardo timed his run to meet Gross's corner and flash a header into the net.

Youngsters Max Sanders and Haydon Roberts were given chance to join in, replacing Jahanbakhsh and Veltman.

Gyokeres added the fourth with an accomplished finish in the 71st minute.

A deep cross was headed down by Bernardo and Gyokeres turned away from the defender at his back before guiding a low shot across McGillivray.

The attackers were enjoying themselves - but Jason Steele had his own special moment before the end to preserve the clean sheet.

He reached to his right to pull off a superb reflex save from a Raggett header at a corner.