Spurs go marching on as they find their steely side

Resilience is a quality rarely associated with Tottenham teams but Harry Redknapp's side certainly have as much steel as style.

For the third time in 11 games under Redknapp, Spurs fought back from a goal down to win a match that looked as though it would go wrong for them.

The Carling Cup holders are still in possession of their trophy and, if they can avoid Manchester United in the semi-finals, they will fancy their chances of reaching a second consecutive final.

Spurs still have a huge fight on their hands to ensure they survive in the Premier League, where they are above the relegation zone on goal difference alone, and being involved in the UEFA Cup, Carling Cup and FA Cup will stretch them.

Even the most biased Spurs fan would struggle to argue that the team were convincing last night.

Against a side 20th in the Championship, the visitors found it difficult to assert themselves and their lack of creativity in the absence of the injured Luka Modric is alarming.

But even when they are playing poorly, Spurs look far tougher and more pragmatic than they did under Juande Ramos, or during the closing weeks of Martin Jol's reign.

Watford made a much better start to this match and they deserved to take the lead. Aaron Lennon was dispossessed by Jon Harley, who combined with Tommy Smith to set up Tamas Priskin.

The Hungarian took advantage of some loose marking to shoot past Heurelho Gomes from 15 yards.

It was only Brendan Rodgers's second game in charge of Watford and the early signs are good for the former Chelsea reserve-team coach, even though he is still looking for his first victory.

Rodgers's team played tidy, economical football, showing reasonable composure in possession and diligence when they did not have the ball.

Until he was forced off with injury in the 58th minute, Jay DeMerit marked Roman Pavlyuchenko out of the match, while in attack, the lively Smith was always dangerous.

Unfortunately for Rodgers, both players are almost certain to be sold in the January transfer window, as the hard-up club aim to strengthen their financial position.

Spurs's reaction to going behind, though, was impressive. They did not panic, nor did their heads drop.

It is also significant that Spurs managed to win this game without Ledley King. With his captain absent due to his persistent knee problems, Redknapp chose to hand the armband to Jonathan Woodgate, rather than the fit-again Jermaine Jenas, who had deputised for King all season.

Redknapp has spoken often about the importance of King to his team and the 61-year-old will surely be delighted that his players managed to pass a difficult test without their leader.

For the first 20 minutes, Spurs were half-asleep, but Lennon's clever chip, which was brilliantly pushed away by Scott Loach, blew away the cobwebs.

Loach then saved well from Lennon and Jenas, before Pavlyuchenko missed a sitter, hitting the crossbar from just six yards.

The Russian quickly made up for his mistake by scoring the equaliser from the penalty spot in first-half stoppage time after Jenas had been tripped by Ross Jenkins.

Pavlyuchenko has now scored in every round of the competition.

While the £14million signing from Spartak Moscow lacks pace and caused few problems for the Watford defence, it is hard to question his goal record. Last night's effort was his seventh in 11 starts for Spurs.

Darren Bent started on the substitutes' bench and replaced Fraizer Campbell — who again failed to take his chance in the starting line-up — after 65 minutes and scored the winning goal 11 minutes later when he beat Loach at his near post with a low shot.

After scoring seven goals in Redknapp's first five matches, Bent has looked subdued of late and Redknapp admitted: "In the last couple of weeks, I felt he hadn't been so sharp, so I left him out.

"Strikers need to work hard and to hold the ball up.

Scoring goals is the most important thing but you need to contribute to other parts of the game if you want to be a good team.

"We are very close now, so we want to go all the way and win the competition again."

Much has been made of Spurs's improvement under Redknapp and his work in restoring the players' self-belief has been excellent.

And unlike Chelsea and Arsenal, Spurs avoided coming unstuck against Championship opposition in this event.

They may not be not playing the thrilling football their supporters crave, but at least the club now look like a real team again.

TURNING POINT

Tamas Priskin might have put Watford in front with an impressive strike after 13 minutes but he ruined all his good work midway through the second half.

With the score at 1-1 after 65 minutes, Lee Williamson took advantage of Benoit Assou-Ekotto's slip to set up Priskin, who had options as he carried the ball towards the Spurs penalty area.

Instead of releasing Jobi McAnuff to his left or Adrian Mariappa to his right, Priskin decided to shoot from 25 yards and his effort deflected off Michael Dawson and was collected easily by Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.

Mariappa was furious with his team-mate and Watford paid the ultimate price for Priskin's selfishness 10 minutes later, when substitute Darren Bent beat Scott Loach at his near post to knock the Hornets out.

Had Priskin made a better decision, Watford manager Brendan Rodgers could have been celebrating a place in the Carling Cup semi-finals after only two games in charge of his new club.

But the ex-Chelsea reserve-team coach still saw plenty of reasons to be optimistic after watching his side hold their own against the holders for most of the match.

Rodgers said: "In the first 25 minutes we were very good.

"The idea of us playing football was there, so we made a bright start and scored a great goal."