Ben Watson says securing promotion to the Premier League with Watford is just as good a feeling as his winning goal in the 2013 FA Cup final.

Back in January the midfielder decided to swap Wigan Athletic for the Hornets. It wasn’t an easy decision.

Watson was a Latics legend - it was his 90th minute header at Wembley a little over two years ago that clinched a 1-0 win over Manchester City and Wigan’s first major piece of silverware.

But he knew he couldn’t pass up the opportunity of joining the Golden Boys’ bid to reach the Premier League. On Saturday Watford achieved that objective.

“It is an unbelievable achievement getting promoted,” Watson, who won promotion to the Premier League with Crystal Palace ten years ago said. “Obviously it's different in terms of scoring the winner but it's just as good.

“It's another very special moment in my career without a doubt. This is why you play football – you want to get promoted. You want to win things and that's what we've done.”

He continued: “There's a huge amount of potential [in Watford’s squad]. You look at some of the individual players we've got and the talent is impressive but as a team we do it well.

"But if you go to the Premier League you're going to have to add players and we'll be no different.”

Since his mid-season arrival Watson has become an integral part of the Golden Boys side, making 18 starts in his 19 games for the club.

What Watson brings to the Watford team is easy to overlook. He doesn’t have the flair of an Almen Abdi, doesn’t play 40-yard passes like Daniel Tozser and doesn’t have the all-action style of Adlene Guedioura.

What the 29-year-old does is to keep things simple. He breaks up opposition attacks – no Watford player has won more tackles per game - and he keeps possession ticking over with short and crisp passes.

His importance is further highlighted by the fact he has completed 90 minutes in Watford’s last nine matches.

In that time the Hornets have risen from third in the table to first. It was a run of form that secured their place in the top flight.

“After my first game I believed we were good enough to compete,” Watson said. “When I joined we had 20 games to play and I believed whoever out of the top eight was the most consistent until the end of the season would be promoted.”

Watford have been that side. And on Saturday they extended their winning run to five Championship games with a 2-0 victory at Brighton and Hove Albion.

As the Hornets players travelled back to their London Colney training ground from the south coast they watched as Middlesbrough were beaten at Fulham and Norwich City drew at Rotherham United.

It was a set of results that guaranteed Watford promotion and sparked jubilant celebrations on the team bus.

Watson said: “It couldn't have gone any better to be fair. Obviously the goals were coming through and it was up and down – one minute we were up then we were going into the last game. But it couldn't have gone any better.”

He added: “It was good timing. It was just when we got back to the training ground. It went a bit mental to be honest. I can't really explain it. When the results came through it went crazy.”

The Hornets’ season isn’t over, however. They have yet to wrap up the Championship title but know victory over Sheffield Wednesday will guarantee they finish in top spot.

“Without a doubt the aim now is to go up as champions,” Watson said. “We're promoted but the next thing we want to do is win the league. We'll go into next Saturday and see if we can finish off the job.”