THERE is a phrase about best laid plans, not that you would have mentioned it to a furious Gary Megson after the game on Saturday.

The Wanderers boss had drilled his side on how best to tackle Chelsea’s multi-millionaires only to see hours of hard work on the training pitch undone in 21 sloppy minutes.

Nicolas Anelka pounced on some lazy defending before Deco was given space for a party-piece volley to put the result beyond doubt before it even got dark.

From there, it was always going to be an uphill struggle of the highest order.

“The first goal is really disappointing from our point of view because, believe it or not, we do work on that in training,” Megson said, with more than a hint of sarcasm. “Instead of dropping off when the cross came in, we should have been squeezing up so Nicolas Anelka was a couple of yards offside.

“It was poor defending and once you give Chelsea a lead, because of the type of side they are, you are in trouble.”

Even before Anelka’s ninth-minute effort, Kevin Davies had a golden opportunity from Gavin McCann’s corner – and had the Whites striker taken his tally to six for the season, the game might have gone down a very different path.

“You would expect Kevin to score from there and we knew that set pieces would trouble them because they are one of our strengths,” Megson said. “We had some decent opportunities – Gary Cahill’s header from the long throw in the second half was also really good, unfortunately he hit it straight at Petr Cech.

“I was more pleased in the second half because I thought we went after it a little bit more. They got a couple of really good chances but I don’t think the game would have gone as it did had we done that from the start.”

Megson withdrew Fabrice Muamba at the break to bring on Ricardo Gardner – the midfielder carrying the can for Wanderers’ disappointing first-half show.

“It was partly tactical but the idea was that we needed to step it up and put Chelsea out of their rhythm a little bit,” Megson explained.

“Fabrice’s performances since he has been here have been up and down. Overall, I have been delighted with him but against Chelsea, he didn’t get after the game like I expected him to.

“He was the easiest one to bring off and put Bibi on. But we could have brought three or four others off for doing the same thing.”