Watford’s dwindling Premier League survival hopes suffered another blow as a dreadful opening 21 minutes saw them beaten comfortably at Wolves.
A 4-0 defeat at Molineux leaves Watford with just one win from their last 16 Premier League outings, with Roy Hodgson’s side three points from safety with 10 games remaining.
Everton in 17th have a superior goal difference and three games in hand as an early strike from Raul Jimenez, a Cucho Hernandez own goal and a Daniel Podence effort saw Wolves coasting with less than a quarter of the game gone – and a fine Ruben Neves chip rounded off a commanding display late on.
Three defeats on the bounce for the home side never looked like becoming four as they maintain hopes of securing European qualification at the end of the season.
Hodgson doffed his cap to the trio of strikes scored by Arsenal to down Watford on Sunday – but here he was left shaking his head in disbelief.
While their fate looks all but sealed, a trip to Molineux actually offered the Hornets a chance to drag themselves back into the fight, having taken 12 points on their travels this term compared to a measly seven at home.
Wolves, too, have struggled in front of their own fans, scoring just 10 goals in their 13 home league games until Watford rolled into town.
Jimenez was given all the time he needed to control a pass from strike partner Hwang Hee-chan and convert from just six yards out to open the scoring with 13 minutes on the clock.
Eight minutes later and the game was well beyond Watford, Hernandez tamely diverting a Rayan Ait-Nouri cross into his own goal before goalkeeper Ben Foster fluffed his lines from a clearance and presented the ball to Podence, who made no mistake from 25 yards.
Hodgson reacted by replacing Kiko Femenia with Christian Kabasele and it stemmed the tide from the hosts as Joshua King passed up a decent opportunity to give Watford a glimmer of hope.
Foster, with the full force of the Wolves fans in the South Bank now on his back, once again found Podence with an errant clearance but this time the forward could not lift a shot back over the goalkeeper from 40 yards out.
Almost all of the chances were coming the way of the home side as substitutes Pedro Neto and Fabio Silva came close to extending the lead.
Wolves would strike again in the closing stages, Neves deftly controlling the ball on the edge of the box before lofting an inch-perfect finish over Foster.