The 31-year-old Australian, whose current deal expires at the end of the campaign, helped himself to his 13th and 14th goals of the season as the Hornets were trounced 4-1 at the Riverside Stadium.

There were chants of 'sign him up' from the home stands as talks continue over a contract extension, and manager Gareth Southgate is keeping his fingers crossed.

He said: "Talks are ongoing and Mark is having a think about things.

"I am very relaxed about it. He knows my position on it and I respect the fact that he wants time to think about things.

"He has said he is enjoying his football, which I think he is. When you are as close to the end of a contract as he is, you have got lots of different things to think about.

"It is a situation I am very, very comfortable with and we will just have to see what develops."

If Viduka was the executioner, it was wingers Stewart Downing and Adam Johnson who provided him with the ammunition.

The pair were a threat throughout, and it took Johnson, preferred on the right to Stuart Parnaby, just five minutes to make his mark when he crossed for Downing to head down to the Australian, who opened the scoring.

Damien Francis' 22nd-minute equaliser briefly gave Watford hope, but George Boateng restored his side's lead with the help of a deflection off team-mate Chris Riggott three minutes later.

The Hornets' resistance did not end there, although Viduka's cultured 75th-minute finish dashed their hopes and Fabio Rochemback's fourth simply added to the misery.

Southgate was delighted with his side's response to their abject surrender at West Ham last weekend.

He said: "We had asked for a reaction from last weekend. It does not make up for last weekend, but I cannot fault the players for the way they responded to what we have done this week.

"We tried to attack from the off and really reacted well to the disappointment of the equaliser, because that could have thrown us a bit.

"On the day, we moved the ball very well, passed it very well and created lots of chances, and we were good value for the victory."

Watford boss Adrian Boothroyd was hugely disappointed with his side's performance, but refused to admit defeat in the fight against relegation.

Asked if his side's hopes were over, he replied: "I am always going to answer that question 'Of course it is not'. I am not going to put the white flag up.

"That is not my style, nor will it ever be. The teams around us, it looks like they are having a go, but the league does not lie and it is like it is for a reason.

"But whatever happens to you and whatever comes up, you have got to make sure you give your absolute everything until the very last breath, and today we did not do that."

Boothroyd could not understand why his side performed so poorly just a week after taking champions Chelsea all the way before losing in added time.

He said: "We were extremely poor. The only good thing about it was our travelling support.

"We were lacklustre against a team from whom you never know what to expect.

"We were absolutely nowhere near it, particularly in the first half. In the second half, there was a little bit of a flurry and a couple of chances created, but if you do not put them away, you get punished and that is exactly what happened.

"I am very, very disappointed with that."