Brentford needed a stunning 21-minute second-half hat-trick from Bryan Mbeumo to see off a spirited fightback from Port Vale.

The striker was sent on after 62 minutes with the Premier League side leading 1-0 – thanks to a goal by Marcus Forss – but under the cosh from a team 62 places below them in the pyramid.

Mbeumo eased their anxieties, however, by scoring two fine break-away goals before completing his treble with a well-taken penalty to steer Thomas Frank’s team into the fourth round.

“I thought we were excellent in the first half,” Frank said. “Our counter-pressing and attitude was spot on. We scored a good goal, we controlled it and didn’t give Port Vale a sniff of anything.

“We started the second half badly, they played a bit more direct, ran at us more but when we went 2-0 up I thought ‘that’s job done.’ But you know this is the FA Cup, they created a special atmosphere, scored to make it 2-1 and put us under pressure. If they had got it back to 2-2, anything could have happened. In the end we weathered the storm and Bryan saw us home. ”

Vale, sixth in League Two, had not played for a month because of Covid postponements and it showed in a hesitant first-half display with Forss underlining Brentford’s control by giving them a 26th minute lead with a fine shot after being set up by Mads Bidstrup.

But Vale – led by Ben Garrity and Dave Worrall – stormed back after the break and gave Brentford several scares.

Mbeumo appeared to have ended their hopes after 66 minutes with a cool finish after being put through by Vitaly Janelt but sub Kian Harratt – on his debut – put Vale back in it four minutes later with a header at the far post from a Dennis Politic cross.

The League Two side pressed hard for an equaliser only for Mbeumo eased Brentford’s anxieties again after 76 minutes when he scored his second, running unchallenged from the halfway line to fire home his shot via a post.

And he completed his hat-trick from the spot in the 87th minute after sub Ivan Toney had been tripped in the box.

Vale manager Darrell Clarke said: “We looked a bit rusty and looked like we hadn’t played for 28 days but in the second half we had a good go. We have a lot of lads coming back from Covid and injury, so I’m really pleased we put in a half-decent performance on the day. ”

Match details

Port Vale (5-3-2): Stone 7; Worrall 7, Cass, 6, Martin 6, Smith 6, Gibbons 6 (M Benning 60); Garrity 8, Pett 6 (Walker 83), Conlon 6; Amoo 5 (Politic 59), Wilson 5 (Harratt 55). Subs Covolan, Bailey, Jones, McDermott, Burgess.

Brentford (3-5-2): Lossl 7; Ajer 6 (Roerslev 63), Sorensen 7, Pinnock 6; Ghoddos 5 (Peart-Harris 83), Stevens 7, Janelt 6 (Baptiste 70), Bidstrup 8, Thompson 6 (Toney 83); Wissa 5 (Mbeumo 62), Forss 7. Subs Fernandez, Norgaard, Jansson, Young-Coombes.

Referee: Thomas Bramall (South Yorkshire).