Tamas Priskin gave Brendan Rodgers' side an early lead at Vicarage Road before Roman Pavlyuchenko netted for the holders from the penalty spot to maintain his record of scoring in each round of this season's competition.

Redknapp's magic touch has turned Spurs' season around and it worked again when he brought on Darren Bent as a substitute to score the winner with 14 minutes remaining.

And the Spurs boss said on Sky Sports 1: "Watford got off to a good start in the first 10 minutes. Then I thought we showed terrific character and eventually got the goal.

"I felt at that stage we'd go on and win but credit to Watford, they had a go at us. But I thought we played okay, I was very pleased."

Match-winner Bent admitted he was relieved to score.

"It was more about not staying out for another half an hour in the freezing cold," he joked.

"The team played well, we created chances and got the result.

"It is massive, the Carling Cup is another bit of silverware for us."

Stand-in captain Jonathan Woodgate admitted it was a difficult evening's work.

"They caused us problems, the pitch was hard to play on, they were in our faces, but credit to the lads for coming back from a goal down to win," he said.

"Everyone was disappointed with the goal, especially myself, but you learn from it and keep improving."