WANDERERS 1, ARSENAL 0: Stelios, the little man with the habit of causing big problems for Arsenal, claims that Wanderers' repeated triumphs over adversity had earned them the right to be ranked among the great and the good.

The Greek ace was the toast of a half-empty Reebok Stadium on Saturday night, when he scored his third goal in his last four encounters with Arsene Wenger's Gunners.

His late header put Wanderers into the last 16 of the FA Cup and piled on the misery for the men from Highbury and their French manager.

But Stelios, who reckons psychology tipped the balance between two weakened Premiership teams, says no-one should be shocked to see the Whites continue to rack up victories, despite their already limited resources being stretched to near-breaking point.

The problems continue to pile up for Sam Allardyce, who already had seven first-teamers unavailable before Ivan Campo limped out of the match and possibly the season with a broken foot. But each setback serves only to bring the best out of Wanderers.

"We are not a small club or a middle club any more," Stelios said. "We are a club that is improving year by year, week by week, and this is what I like very much - not only me, but the rest of the lads, the gaffer and everybody here.

"I like it because two or three years ago, the feeling was not the same. Now we feel we are a big club, a good club and that the club is getting bigger and bigger.

"Even if we lose players, we show character, a strong personality and heart. These are signs of a big club mentality."

Wenger left the Reebok a beaten man for the second time in eight weeks, but, unlike in December when, he respectfully acknowledged he had learned lessons from the 2-0 Premiership defeat, he declined to give Wanderers any credit for knocking out his cup holders.

Four days after the agony of being dumped out of the Carling Cup by Wigan Athletic on the back of a Premiership defeat at Everton, he admitted this had been the worst week of his nine-and-a-half-year Highbury reign, yet still maintained his Gunners were "three goals better".

Stelios countered: "We had a lot of players missing, so did they, but we deserved to win it because we wanted the victory more."

And the man, who won seven successive league titles in Greece and helped his national team triumph against all the odds at the 2004 European Championships, is more convinced than ever that Wanderers now have the Indian sign on their illustrious rivals, especially at the Reebok.

"Sometimes psychology plays a very big part in football and we took advantage of it," he said. "I know the feeling. When I was at Olympiakos, we played in some places we didn't like to play and maybe for them (Arsenal) it's the same."

Although paying a high price for the victory - Campo was just getting back into his stride after missing much of the first half of the season with a broken left foot (this time it's the right) - Wanderers had good reason to be pleased with the way they coped without the Spaniard for much of the second half.

Having dominated the first, without ever seriously threatening Manuel Almunia, they lost the initiative for a spell as Arsenal, who have done well without their big guns in the past but looked very ordinary without Henry, Bergkamp, Pires and Gilberto, began to threaten.

Robin Van Persie and Sol Campbell hit the crossbar and Jussi Jaaskelainen denied Freddie Ljungberg with a fingertip save. But Wanderers should have been ahead on the hour when Ricardo Vaz Te raced away from Phillippe Senderos and went for glory when he could have teed-up Jared Borgetti.

Nevertheless, in a game short on scoring chances, they produced the combination of quality and determination, just when it mattered.

Ricardo Gardner - the game's most outstanding and energetic performer - produced the initial thrust with a ball for the ever-willing Kevin Davies to chase into the corner, where he fended off Kerrea Gilbert before laying it back. From then on it was sheer class: Gardner whipped in a cross that was too good for the Arsenal defence and Stelios darted in to beat Almunia with an unstoppable header.

"I just don't know why I keep scoring against Arsenal," the Greek said. "It just happens, maybe it's coincidence, I don't know. Of course I am happy because I scored and that gives pleasure to the fans."

Sadly there were only 13,236 there to witness the event - a terrible indictment of the modern game when a stadium that holds more than 28,000 is less than half full to see two Premiership teams, one being the holders, go head to head in the world's most famous domestic cup competition.

Live coverage on terrestrial TV, which dictated the kick off time, and the fact that both sides were known to be seriously under-strength, ultimately proved a greater influence than the reduced prices.

Whatever reasons the missing thousands had for staying away, the sparse crowd made for a lack of atmosphere, which was reflected in the quality of the football. Allardyce, although delighted with what he described as "an absolutely fantastic win", examined the attendance figure and said: "To say I am disappointed is an understatement. We were playing Arsenal, the cup holders, when all's said and done. I know it was on TV and on Saturday night but it does disappoint.

"You can look at the game and say it was ordinary but part of the reason why it was ordinary was because there was no atmosphere and that made life so difficult for both sets of players."

Injuries and suspension forced Wenger's hand to a large degree, but, when he reflects on his failure to take Arsenal past the fourth round stage for only the second time in eight years, he might regret opting to rest players such as Bergkamp, Pires and Henry, who could probably all have played, if pressed.

Allardyce, for his part, had no option with Henrik Pedersen, Gary Speed and Khalilou Fadiga injured and El-Hadji Diouf, Abdoulaye Faye, Radhi Jaidi and Jay Jay Okocha on duty at the African Cup of Nations - all the more reason to be delighted with the win. By the time Nicky Hunt went on to join fellow subs, Vaz Te and Matt Jansen, and deny Van Persie with a sensational injury-time tackle, the only fit, senior professional Wanderers had not used was deputy keeper Ian Walker.

Allardyce said, in tribute to his understudies: "There was a great fear over how long we could keep the squad fit and how well the players would do, having to play so much.

"We were almost threatened with having to play some players who simply weren't good enough for the Premiership. But we keep managing to muddle our way through and, in the main, we've played very good football.

"Nearly every single player at this football club at the moment is playing on top of his game and earning his money. There is only a few of them but the few we have are outstanding and I'm proud of what they are achieving under the circumstances."