JARED Borgetti must have been licking his lips at the prospect of gorging on the feast of scoring chances his new team-mates squandered at the Reebok on Sunday.

The Mexican scoring sensation watched from the stands alongside fellow new signing, Hidetoshi Nakata, as Wanderers became the victims of a classic smash and grab raid.

It was Premiership football at its cruellest, with Everton - on the back foot for most of the game and surviving one scare after another - snatching victory with an isolated raid on the Bolton goal seven minutes into the second half.

To suggest Marcus Bent's close-range strike came against the run of play would be an understatement of reckless proportions; this match winner almost defied the laws of physics.

Nevertheless, Wanderers had only themselves to blame for missing enough chances to have won a tournament, never mind a single game - and most would have been food and drink to Borgetti, who became Mexico's all-time leading scorer when he chalked up his 36th international goal last week.

That Sam Allardyce chose to leave his new £1m striker on the sidelines said more about his fatigue levels and his lack of Premiership experience than his scoring prowess, although the Wanderers boss - tortured by the lack of cutting edge that has delivered just one point from the first two games - will be careful not to heap too much responsibility on the shoulders of the Desert Fox, as and when he does select him.

"It's unfair to think that this lad's going to come in and score 20 goals in the Premiership," the manager said. "He just isn't going to be doing that.

"If we could get six or seven or even more from him in his first season, it would be great for us.

"What we know we can do - although we need to do it with more quality than we showed yesterday - is get the ball into the box, and he thrives on that."

Being the natural goalscorer that he is, and with a reputation as a powerful aerial threat, Borgetti would have been disappointed in any company not to have converted at least one of the chances Wanderers carved out - and missed - in a performance which was hopefully not a sign of things to come.

Time and again they raised hopes, forcing 10 corners to one plus as many long throws that tested Everton's nerve as well as their organisation. And, although Nigel Martyn and his defenders resisted stubbornly and effectively, they enjoyed more than their share of good fortune as Wanderers spurned a succession of scoring opportunities.

The industrious Gary Speed and the inspirational Radhi Jaidi had two apiece and the luckless Kevin Nolan, who thought he'd left his goal jinx at Villa Park, would have marched off with the signed match ball if he hadn't spurned a hat-trick of chances - two in the second half from mouth watering positions.

El-Hadji Diouf was the unluckiest of the lot, though. Playing his first game at the Reebok as a fully-fledged Wanderer, he showed precisely why Wanderers shelled out more than £4 million in the summer to convert his loan from Liverpool into a permanent move.

With practically every touch of the ball - and he had his share - the Senegal star put Everton on their guard and raised Wanderers' hopes that their dominance would be rewarded.

And he finally appeared to have done it three minutes from time when he latched onto a clearance and fired in a scorching right-footer that beat the excellent Martyn only to cannon back off the bar.

"I didn't score, but maybe next time," Diouf said, disappointed but far from disheartened.

"I am very, very happy with the performance. The team played well, we played nice football, we played compact and the boss is happy.

"It was just the result that wasn't there. This is football. Sometimes you play good and win, sometimes you play good and you lose. This is life."

Diouf's definition of "happy" actually appeared to be at odds with Allardyce's. In fairness, the manager used the words "magnificent" and "fabulous" to describe parts of the performance, but he was far from pleased with events at the business end.

And, although he stressed it was far too early to be expressing too much cause for concern, he admitted Wanderers had put themselves under pressure to take maximum points from Wednesday night's home game against Newcastle.

"It makes it very, very difficult to deal with when you've produced so much in 90 minutes and come away with so little," he said, "but we are all experienced enough to know that we've got to do better and show more quality in front of goal and the lads at the back can't switch off for one minute. Otherwise you're going to get punished.

"This was the perfect example of the Premiership being as cruel at it can be. It's cost us the game.

"There are problems in two key areas that we have got to resolve.Everything in between is magnificent. The build-up play, pressure, quality of ball, passing, hold-up play, movement; all fantastic.

"It was just the ultimate cutting edge that was lacking and, finally, there has been that one mistake that has cost us the goal.

"I can't remember Everton having another chance after that - and they've won 1-0."

Duncan Ferguson, Kevin Kilbane and Tim Cahill have rarely been as quiet, collectively, but lucky manager David Moyes will point to Big Dunc's part in the goal - his aerial challenge on Tal Ben Haim allowed Yobo's long ball to drop for Cahill to cross for Bent - and feel his selection and his tactics were justified.

"They had one long ball and scored," beaten keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen said.

"But that's the Preniership. It's a cruel league.

"We just have to start keeping clean sheets and taking our chances.

"The main thing is that we have to score the first goal. In every game, including pre-season we have gone 1-0 down and it's not good enough.

"We've got to stop it. It's difficult to say why this is happening.

"There's no real reason, but we switched off once against Everton and they scored."