WATFORD 0, Wanderers 3: The way in which Wanderers comprehensively dismissed Watford on Saturday, it is a wonder how any Premiership club ever falls victim to a giant-killing act.

To say there is a gulf between football's elite and those who aspire to becoming members of the world's premier league, is the understatement of the century.

In theory, a third round FA Cup tie at Vicarage Road was a tricky one for Sam Allardyce to negotiate, facing the Championship's fourth-ranked club with a team decimated by injuries, suspensions and international calls.

In reality, it turned out to be a walk in the park, as stark an illustration as you could ever get of the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Allardyce, already without nine key squad members, elected to rest regular keeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen, and had his options further limited by the overnight departure of Martin Djetou, whose short-term contract was not renewed. In the end, he had only 11 fit senior players at his disposal, yet he was still able to send out nine full internationals, five of whom have captained their countries, plus two Under-21 starlets, who will soon step up to the senior level.

Watford, weakened by three suspensions themselves, might have been encouraged, but, on reflection, they never had a prayer.

The likes of Jared Borgetti, Hidetoshi Nakata, Khalilou Fadiga and Jay Jay Okocha - all struggling to live up to Premiership expectations - answered the call to arms in a manner that overwhelmed Adrian Boothroyd's high-flying Hornets.

Ugly football! Wanderers didn't commit a foul for 41 minutes, because they just didn't have to. They got the ball, kept it and moved it slickly and precisely and all Watford could do was chase after it.

They managed to keep the half-time deficit down to two - a couple of nice strikes by Borgetti and Stelios - but only by way of an offside strategy that caused Wanderers a certain frustration, notably when Ricardo Vaz Te had a goal mysteriously disallowed. But the game was up and, once their spirited start to the second half had fizzled out, they were on the back foot again.

Vaz Te got his reward for another impressive performance when he beat Ben Foster from 25 yards 13 minutes from time and suddenly the scoreline had a familiar look to it - identical to a year ago, when Wanderers, again without a raft of first-teamers, proved their Premiership class at Ipswich, who were top of the Championship at the time.

The Bolton fans chanted "Easy, easy", not so much in disrespect to Watford as in acknowledgment of their own team's overwhelming superiority.

Allardyce summed it up succinctly: "The players made it look a lot easier than it was by producing their best.

"The 11 who started did a magnificent job, played to the top of their form against a team that is playing very well and in the top reaches of the Championship and is trying to get in the play-offs.

"There was no doubt about the experience of the team I put out. Apart from Ricardo Vaz Te and Joey O'Brien, every one has played a huge amount of international games, whatever country they have played in, throughout Europe and the world, and a lot of them have actually captained their national teams: Jay Jay Okocha, Jared Borgetti, Hide Nakata, Khalilou Fadiga and Ricardo Gardner."

Big Sam even had the luxury of showing he has a sentimental streak, sending on his academy goalkeeper, Sam Ashton, as a makeshift striker for the two added minutes.

It was a fairy tale for the boy from Breightmet whose love for Bolton Wanderers is tattooed on his arm and who, whatever else he does in football, will remember the day for the rest of his life.

But the fact that 19-year-old Ashton was on the bench in the first place - alongside Academy pals Jaroslaw Fojut, Robert Sissions, Bedi Buval and James Sinclair - showed precisely why Allardyce is anxious to reinforce his squad this month.

"We had a good side out there, but behind that, we've got nothing other than scholars," he added. "Gladly, we didn't get any injuries."

What he did get were performances from Nakata, Borgetti and Fadiga that suggested they are ready to step up to the plate and assume Premiership responsibilities while Wanderers are without their quartet of African Nations Cup players. Okocha flew out yesterday to follow El-Hadji Diouf, Abdoulaye Faye and Radhi Jaidi, who left last week to prepare for the Egypt tournament.

Nakata prospered, looking every inch the player who honed his skills in Japan and who built his sky-high reputation in Italy, while Borgetti, increasingly frustrated at his failure to win a Premiership start, showed once again why he was top scorer in the World Cup qualifiers and why the seeded Mexicans will be pinning their hopes on him to fly their flag in Germany this summer.

The Desert Fox took his cup goal tally to five when he cashed in on some sloppy Watford defending in the 11th minute and, with a touch more good fortune, could have had a hat-trick. But, goal-poacher that he is, he settled for an unselfish assist when he stepped over Vaz Te's cross to tee up the hard-working Stelios for Wanderers' second on 33 minutes.

Fadiga started the move with the pass that sent Vaz Te clear of Lloyd Doyley on the left and it was the former Auxerre ace, controversially left out of Senegal's ANC squad, who pulled the strings in a midfield Watford just could not get to grips with. Whether he will have the necessary defensive qualities to operate in the pivotal holding role at Premiership level is something Allardyce must chew over as he plans for Saturday's derby duel with Blackburn without Faye, his most effective enforcer, but his distribution and eye for an opening are of the highest order.

With Fadiga, Nakata and Okocha orchestrating in the central roles and Stelios and Vaz Te alternating on the flanks and running the full-backs ragged, there was never any doubt whose name was going into this afternoon's fourth round draw.

Watford might have made more of a fight of it, had Marlon King and Darius Henderson done better with two first half chances that fell their way, but the Bolton back four was never seriously threatened.

The fact that Boothroyd's boys were so lacking in spirit, apart from a 15 minute spell at the start of the second half, when Ian Walker had to make a couple of important interventions, went a long way to making life so easy for Wanderers.

Bolton deserved the result," said the ambitious young Hornets boss. "They were the better team on the day and, in our best periods of the game, we didn't score the goals."

In truth, Watford's only chance of an upset was to knock the likes of Nakata, Stelios and Okocha out of their stride.

When they failed to do that, the giant-killing they hoped for was never on the cards.