A first-half hat-trick from Les Ferdinand helped Spurs to a comprehensive victory over Bolton in the quarter-final of the Worthington Cup at White Hart Lane on Tuesday night.

Simon Davies, Steffen Iversen and an own goal from Anthony Barness were Tottenham's other scorers for the 1999 winners, who moved a step closer to the final at the Millennium Stadium in February.

The victory also avenged Spurs' 6-1 fourth-round defeat against Bolton five years ago in the same competition.

The home side took full advantage of a Bolton side missing top scorer Michael Ricketts, who was named on the substitutes' bench.

Japanese striker Akinori Nishizawa made a rare first-team start for Wanderers, while Les Ferdinand returned from an ankle injury to partner Teddy Sheringham up front for Spurs.

Glenn Hoddle's side capitalised on their early first-half dominance on 21 minutes when Davies latched on to a Ferdinand lay-off to fire past Juski Jaaskelainen from 20 yards.

Eight minutes later, the home side were two up when Ferdinand netted the first of his three goals.

The Bolton defence failed to deal with a long throw-in from Steffen Freund and Ferdinand pounced to head past Jaaskelainen from six yards.

The Finn was picking the ball out of the net again a minute later when Ferdinand headed his second from a right-wing Darren Anderton cross.

The match was effectively over on 38 minutes when Ferdinand headed his third of the evening, this time after good work from Davies from the left.

The second-half was as equally painful for the visitors when Anthony Barness turned past Jaaskelainen for Spurs' fifth on 78 minutes.

Iversen, on as a substitute for Gus Poyet, added the sixth when Jaaskelainen twice blocked Anderton, but could not prevent the Norwegian knocking in his first goal of the season.