For 40 years one of the best wildlife shows on TV was an ITV documentary series called Survival.
It was beautifully shot using the sort of camerawork we now take as standard, but back in the 70s and 80s being able to see animals in their natural habitat at close quarters was all very new.
Generally Survival was aired on a Sunday, often tucked away after The Big Match with Brian Moore, and before the early evening double of Bullseye and Hart to Hart.
One episode of Survival which sticks in the mind followed a leopard, and showed how its speed, power and skill enabled it to hunt down and eventually kill its prey.
There was a small herd of gazelle, minding their own business and grazing when one wandered off slightly. A lapse of concentration you might say.
The voiceover went something like “and so the leopard, seeing the opportunity, moves at incredible pace and with searing power to take its chance, stunning the gazelle before completing the kill”.
Last night, Watford were the gazelle and Leeds were the leopard.
Having happily allowed 20 minutes to unfold, the moment Edo Kayembe’s lapse of concentration presented Dan James with the opportunity to race through and give them the lead was when Leeds emerged from the bushes to seize their pray.
It was all over in 15 minutes, by which time the visitors were 3-0 up and heading towards their 20th Championship win of the season.
And as with the leopard and gazelle, the encounter between Watford and Leeds was a mismatch where once the visitors had a hold on their opponents they simply completed the kill with their superior skill, power and pace.
The visitors, as Tom Cleverley said afterwards, had all the hallmarks of a Premier League team.
The evening felt somewhat similar to those home games during the Premier League years when Manchester City used to rock up and whack in four or five goals at Vicarage Road, with most of their players able to do so while carrying a teacup and saucer.
While Watford were not good last night, they have played worse several times this season. The difference was they haven’t done so against a team as good as Leeds.
For 20 minutes, it seemed like there could be a good game in the offing.
Joel Piroe had a shot deflected over the top by James Abankwah while a fine Kayembe volley from a corner flew wide off a defender.
But then, like the gazelle, a momentary loss of concentration from Watford allowed Leeds, like the leopard, to make its move.
When Kayembe received a pass from Mattie Pollock he was facing goal and midway inside his half.
He knew there was a Watford player to his right but clearly had no awareness of how close Dan James was, and his pass was simply swept up by the striker, who raced into the box.
Sometimes, in the Championship, such golden opportunities go begging, but with all the ability of a player who has more than 100 Premier League appearances in the bank, the Welsh international steered his shot over and wide of Egil Selvik and into the corner.
We didn’t know it then, but that was the end of the evening in terms of a contest.
The speed at which Leeds are able to do things was highlighted by their second goal, which started from a Watford corner.
When the ball was cleared into the middle of the Leeds half, it was a three-on-three battle.
Within seconds, that became a two v one as the visitors broke with such pace that Watford were left chasing shadows.
Joel Piroe was away on the left, presumably realised it was Pollock trying to get between him and James, and knew the striker would beat the Watford defender in a foot race.
The pass was perfect and James was again through on Selvik – and once more the finish was exemplary, the ball dispatched into the roof of the net with power and accuracy.
Leeds do what other teams in the Championship do, but they do it faster and better.
Watford did have a chance to close the gap when an exquisite pass from Imran Louza sent Moussa Sissoko away on the right, but his touch took him slightly away from goal and Ilian Meslier narrowed the angle before blocking with his body.
You have to wonder, had that been James running onto the very same pass, if the outcome would have been different.
If goal one was a howler and goal two was a superb counter-attack, goal three was very much Watford failing to do the basics and Leeds making the most of it.
When Manor Solomon collected a throw-in on the left there appeared little danger, but as he turned with Louza snapping at his heels, nobody else in a yellow shirt came to challenge.
Instead, Solomon progressed across the pitch before releasing a shot that Selvik probably had covered, only for the ball to flick off Pollock and skip inside the other post.
At that point, horrible thoughts of a humiliating scoreline entered the mind as Leeds were rampant and Watford looked stunned.
Thankfully, they only added one more though the 4-0 home defeat still equalled Watford’s heaviest in the second tier.
In the opening quarter of an hour of the second half, Leeds seemed more than happy to let Watford have the ball, content in the knowledge they could keep them at arm’s length.
To their credit, the Hornets plugged away. Louza was again the stand-out performer, and as good as Leeds were he’d not be a player many would swap for anyone the visitors had in their midfield.
The Moroccan is so industrious, so calm and confident, and orchestrates everything with that touch of class which sets the best players apart.
While the Leeds team look a Premier League outfit in all but division, Louza in this form looks a top-flight player as well.
Eventually, the visitors applied a little more pressure as the clocked ticked away, and added a fourth.
The impressive Ao Tanaka performed a complete 360-degree circle on the corner of the Watford box before slipping the ball to Solomon.
He threaded it square to Piroe, who put Pollock on his backside before rolling the ball past Selvik and into the corner.
The Norwegian keeper, making his home debut, had no chance with any of the goals but he did prevent a fifth when he blocked a Piroe shot at the near post, and James came within a couple of foot of a hat-trick when he shot wide after a beautiful one-two with Brenden Aaronson.
There was the chance of a late consolation for Watford when Louza – who else - spotted a reverse pass to play in Giorgi Chakvetadze, but the Georgian’s shot hit the bar.
Fine margins, and no criticism of Chakvetadze, but again it showed the difference between a middling Championship team, and a side destined to be promoted.
In fact the whole night served to show the increasing gaps appearing in English football.
Leeds, who are top, were clearly a level or two above Watford, who are probably an upper mid-table side.
Upon talking to the former Leeds, Chelsea and Aston Villa defender Tony Dorigo, whose media duties mean he watches most of the Yorkshire club’s games, he felt they would need six new players in order to be able to mount a serious attempt to stay in the Premier League should they go up.
Here we have a side that is one of the best seen in the Championship potentially needing half a new team just to be competitive in the top-flight.
Two years ago Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton went up, and came straight back down.
Last season Leicester, Southampton and Ipswich went up: they currently occupy the relegation places.
It’s perhaps a little but timely reminder to all of us that while it’s always good to have dreams and ambitions, the reality is that the chances of teams that are promoted to the Premier League staying there are decreasing with each season.
And not only is there a huge chasm between the top-flight and the Championship there is, as last night showed, another gap developing between the best teams in the second tier and the remainder.
For many reasons, last night was sobering.
It is easy to say Watford were awful, but that would be to fall into the same trap as saying the Hornets only got a point on Saturday because Sunderland were poor.
The Hornets weren’t great, but it felt a better display at Vicarage Road than against Preston or Cardiff, and was clearly not as bad as many of the away-day aberrations.
Leeds were - are - very good. That they have built such a team after selling Gray, Rutter, Summerville and Sinistera in the summer is a sign of just how good the job being done by Daniel Farke is.
And before anyone points out those four players earned the club some £110m in transfer fees, Leeds spent only 10% of that figure on new recruits.
Watford sold £30m-worth of players in the summer, and they too spent 10% of that income.
Just as with the top-flight, there is a league within a league in the Championship now too, and as Watford’s chairman has said a few times, the Hornets may have to set their sights on being ‘the best of the rest’.
That’s realistic, rather than pessimistic – and for anyone who thinks otherwise, then take last night’s thumping, replicate it a few times at home and a dozen or more times away, and ask yourself if you really want Watford to be going anywhere near the Premier League for now.
The far more pressing matter is what is coming down the track for the next home game.
While the last time Luton came to Vicarage Road ended in a glorious 4-0 win, the old enemy have got the bragging rights firmly in Bedfordshire as a result of two humiliating afternoons at Kenilworth Road since then.
Watford haven’t lost to the Hatters at home since a league cup tie in 2003 – a night where violence made the defeat even worse – and you have to go back more than 30 years to find the last time they took three points home from WD18.
Defeats like last night, other miserable home performances, a run of only one win in 10 league games – all very disappointing, but most are eventually able to forgive and forget.
Lose on February 23, and that’s a whole different world of pain.
