The Hammers boss praised the commitment and determination shown by his side, which was deprived of six first-team players, after Sergei Rebrov's second-half winner capped a magnificent West Ham comeback.
"It was all about winning against Watford," confessed Pards, "and thankfully we did that. It didn't have to be aesthetically pleasing, we just had to come away with three points.
"You begin to wonder how the game will turn out when you see the visiting team's first two shots fly into your net, especially as we controlled the game in the opening stages and should have scored ourselves early on.
"But the players showed tremendous determination to regroup after going 2-0 down and they came back with the kind of response that summed up the commitment we have in this squad.
"It was a fantastic effort to equalise before half-time. The players could have put their heads down when they found themselves two goals behind after playing reasonably well. But they really dug deep, worked hard for each other and in the end I thought they thoroughly deserved the win."
If the first 45 minutes were more than a little nerve-jangling, Pards was certainly pleased with the performance of his side in the second-half, when they took hold of the game and always looked the more likely side to snatch three points.
"We were much more composed in the second-half," he said, "and I was really pleased with the way we kept the ball, put Watford under a lot of pressure by firing crosses into their box, and defended very solidly.
"Perhaps we could have had a couple more goals in the end, but coming off the back of two defeats, we were more than happy to just settle for the win."
That 3-2 victory was made all the more impressive by the fact that Alan Pardew was denied six senior players because of injuries and suspensions. Pards admitted that the depth of his squad had been severely tested against a Watford side that came to Upton Park unbeaten in 11 games.
"We've suffered with quite a few injuries recently," admitted Alan, "but that's the nature of football and we know our squad has to be strong if we want to be serious promotion contenders.
"It was a great squad performance today, and the players really must take full credit. Carl Fletcher switched to central defence, where he has played for Bournemouth, and we fielded four youngsters on the bench in Anton Ferdinand, Eliott Ward, Mark Noble and Youssef Sofiane. Under the circumstances, I think a win over an experienced Watford team was an extremely good achievement and we'll take a lot of confidence from this game into next weekend's trip to Sunderland."