“They were pretty impressive. I’ve just watched them against Birmingham. For 37 minutes in the game it was nip and tuck. A bit like all Championship games, you couldn’t tell which was the top team and which was the bottom team.

“And Birmingham just let them off the hook. The winger didn’t track the wing-back and he gets it across and they score, they’re 1-0 down.

“They went all flaky for about seven or eight minutes because they’d conceded and they went 2-0 down, and the game’s beyond them then.

“Watford started slapping it around and enjoying the game and it ended up 4-0. But it was never that kind of a game. They’ve got some good players and he’s certainly got them going there.

“They’re certainly very good on the break and the goals that they scored on Saturday were clinical, they caught them on the break a couple of times and finished them off with a bit of style, a bit of panache.

“But Birmingham had enough chances as well before they went 1-0 down, and even after conceding Birmingham had chances. So, whilst they score a lot of goals, they concede as well.”

Despite Gianfranco Zola’s side sitting third in the table, McCarthy believes the Blues can take something from the game: “I haven’t had any fears about anybody because I think if we play to our level, to our standards then I think we can cope with most of the teams, we can cope with all of them, we did the top team.

“But we had to play particularly well at Cardiff, I don’t think it was Cardiff that played below par, we played very well and did our jobs well, everybody on the pitch. If you’d have marked them out of 10, they were all seven and upwards.

“So, when you’re playing against the top sides, you’ve got to have that and we’ll have to be that way against Watford on Tuesday night.”

He added: “Watford are a very, very talented side. We’ve had some good results. It was a belligerent performance by us on Saturday by us and I think it’ll need to be that on Tuesday.

“And, if we can add a little bit more quality, add a bit to what Chops provided, then we’ll be OK. The team have done OK. Great on Saturday, different game on Tuesday.”

McCarthy, who expects Cardiff to win the Championship but is less sure who will take the other automatic promotion place, has no issue with Watford having 11 players on international loans, six from ‘sister’ clubs Udinese and Granada

He says he's in no position to criticise given the make-up of Town's squad: “From a man who inherited eight loan players? I should sit and whinge about it, should I?

"No, it’s the rules. I think that as long as you do it within the rules, that’s fine by me. It’s up to somebody else to dictate the rules.

“I remember at Wolves picking a team with 11 changes and of course they deemed that that wasn’t within the rules and now it is the rules, you can pick who you want. It’s nonsense.

“Whatever’s in the rules, they’re their players, let them get on with it. Let’s try and beat whoever they turn out.”

Watford boss Zola is weighing up whether to rotate his team, despite his side falling to defeats to Charlton and Bristol City when he has done so on previous occasions.

“It’s very difficult to handle three games in a row so therefore I have to consider it,” the former Italian international said.

"I don’t want to lose players to injuries for a long time and if you play three high intensity games in a week there’s more likelihood that you risk injuries, so I will consider it. I’m not sure that I’ll definitely do that, but I’ll consider it."

Defenders Fitz Hall (hamstring) and Tommie Hoban (Achilles’) will both be missing, while another defender Joel Ekstrand is back after a knee problem.

In August, Michael Chopra’s 90th-minute goal ended Town’s 15-match run without a victory against Watford as the Blues left Vicarage Road with a 1-0 win.

Town were good for the three points but had to wait for their goal with Chopra converting a Carlos Edwards cross.

Prior to that, their previous victory over the Hornets and most recent home win came in March 2004, when a Dean Bowditch hat-trick and a rarity from Jermaine Wright condemned the Hertfordshire side to a 4-1 defeat.

That now-broken league winless streak of 14 games against Watford (one of the overall 15 was in the FA Cup) is the second worst in the club’s history behind a 15-game league streak against Everton between 1962 and 1974.

Historically, the clubs are fairly evenly matched, the Blues winning 25 times (22 in the league), losing 24 (23) and drawing 16 (16).

At Portman Road last season, in December 2011, Watford came from behind to condemn Town to what was their seventh successive defeat as the Hornets left Suffolk with a 2-1 win.

Keith Andrews saw the Blues into a half-time lead but a penalty from Marvin Sordell and a second from Troy Deeney soon after sealed the victory for the visitors.

Chopra scored five goals in five starts and one sub appearance during a month on loan at Vicarage Road in 2003, including four in a 7-4 away win at Burnley. Keeper Scott Loach rejoined the Blues from Watford for £150,000 during this close season.

Watford goalkeeper-coach Alec Chamberlain was, like Loach, a youth player with the Blues but never made a first team appearance, while youth development coach Steve Foley spent time coaching at Vicarage Road earlier in his career.

Tonight’s referee is Roger East from Wiltshire, who has shown 98 yellow cards and five red in 33 games so far this season. Coincidentally, East’s most recent Town match was the 1-0 victory over the Hornets at Vicarage Road earlier in the season in which he booked only Watford winger Mark Yeates.

Squad from: Henderson, Loach, Stearman, Hewitt, Cresswell, Mings, Kisnorbo, Chambers, Smith, N’Daw, Drury, Hyam, Martin, Edwards, Emmanuel-Thomas, Murphy, Chopra, Mclean, McGoldrick, Nouble.

Photo: Action Images