Watford's Jake Livermore has praised Stevenage for their Carabao Cup first-round win.

Boro won 4-3 on penalties after the two sides had finished level at 1-1 at the end of normal time.

And the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder says that the win was part of football's magic.

"That’s the beauty of this cup," he said. "We knew it was going to be a tough ask because the boys had played a lot of minutes and played very well the other day.

"Credit to Stevenage because they dug in and made it difficult. We’ve all been the underdogs in games like this before, and tonight was their night.

"The keeper has made a couple of great saves, and on another night it’s a different story.

"The save from Bayo was superb, and then there was the one from Healey as well.

"I thought all round they were very well drilled, as Steve Evans’ sides usually are, and it was one of those nights.

"We knew tonight they’d have a spell, the spell was just longer than we expected.

"They were going to make it difficult, they were going to play long. We have to be able to adapt to things like this during the season, and luckily enough we’ve had a game like this two games in, and we can learn from it."

Livermore was one of the nine substitutes named by the Championship side, coming on in the 61st minute.

Boro in contrast named just five and used four, goalkeeper Taye Ashby-Hammond the one to stay on the bench.

Manager Steve Evans, who took time to praise Watford's Enfield-raised veteran, says that fact showed the differences between the two sides.

He dud promise things would get be better.

He said: "People say why have we got five subs and they have nine? They're Watford Football Club. We're Stevenage, with our budget. 

"They are bringing on the likes of Jake Livermore, I’d like him in my team, he’s a class act and a class guy off the pitch as well. 

"But what we know is we'll have a strong squad for Saturday. We'll have people available to us again. 

"The updates on [Elliott] List, [Dan] Sweeney and [Harry] Anderson are all really positive. 

"They won’t be available for Saturday but it is getting exciting that we can have them with us [soon]."