Tony Mowbray's side netted four second-half goals as Coventry City, who were reduced to ten men when Michael Mifsud was send off in the 11th minute, ran out of steam.
Mifsud could have little defence. He jumped at Carl Hoefkens, led with the elbow and clearly caught the Belgium defender on the side of the head.
What happened after was not quite so clear. Referee Steve Dowd took his time to pull the player to one side and then proceeded to walk 30 metres to confer with the fourth official.
Then, and only then, did he flourish the red card leaving Coventry with 80 minutes to keep Albion at bay.
But it was a task they accomplished very easily for the rest of a tetchy first half. Stephen Hughes, clearly with the bit between his teeth, was looking strong in midfield and he fired wide after 16 minutes.
The game was still suffering a hangover from the Mifud incident and Jonathan Greening was lucky to escape a booking for a rough challenge on Jay Tabb.
Albion at last sprung into life and home keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos had to make a fine save to deny Filipe Teixeira, who turned well on the edge of the area to beat Marcus Hall.
Iain Dowie made a change at half-time by bringing on Kevin Kyle for the ineffectual Leon Best.
The target man made a difference when he flicked on well for Michael Doyle who fired just over the bar.
But it all went wrong 11 minutes after the break when Paul Robinson, moving forward from full-back, reached the ball just in time to lift it over the keeper and into the net.
Suddenly things turned and just two minutes later Teixeira all but won the game when he reacted to some indecision at the heart of the Coventry defence.
From then on Albion were dominant and could easily have doubled their score. Robinson lifted a shot just over the bar and Ishmael Miller hit the sidenetting sending the visiting fans into temporary ecstasy.
It was left to Teixeira to add a third and put Albion second, when, with 19 minutes left, he twisted then turned to find space to direct in a low shot.
The Portuguese midfielder then turned provider right at the death to gift wrap a goal for Robert Koren.