Tottenham manager Juande Ramos described his side's League Cup final win over Chelsea as one of the sweetest triumphs of his career.
Ramos, who only took over at Spurs in October after guiding Sevilla to back-to-back UEFA Cup titles, has achieved a remarkable turnaround in the club's fortunes and Sunday's 2-1 win secured the club's first trophy since they last won the League Cup, in 1999.
"Obviously yes it is tremendously satisfying to get a trophy," he said. "Especially for the fans and the club, it has been a long time and for a club as big as Tottenham it seems longer."
"This one maybe has a special flavour to it because it was against a team that is supposedly superior to us in Chelsea. It was similar to Sevilla beating Real Madrid and Barcelona -- it makes the whole thing taste better."
Ramos comfortably won his personal tactical duel with Chelsea manager Avram Grant as Tottenham's commitment to attack ultimately paid off with Jonathan Woodgate heading the winner in extra-time after Dimitar Berbatov's penalty had cancelled out a first-half opener for Didier Drogba.
But the Spaniard refused to take the credit for the win. "Success always comes for everyone at the club," he said. "First and foremost it is for the players. Football is not a personal battle -- it was simply that Tottenham were the better team on the day."
Ramos added: "The team has been imporving little by little in terms of security and the confidence they feel. This will have reaffirmed that. They showed that they have improved in their games against Manchester United and Arsenal and Chelsea are another of these teams.
"They have shown they are able to concentrate and fight with the best of them. The key was keeping that concentration and not making mistakes."
Chelsea boss Avram Grant said his side had paid a high price for what he described as a harsh penalty decision.
"We did not start well but as the game progressed we played better and after we scored our goal we dominated," the former Israel boss claimed.
"Then came the decision of the penalty. The ball was between the two players and it touched Wayne Bridge on the hand.
"In my view it was a harsh decision. It was not even the referee's decision -- it was his assistant. But not every time the ball touches the hand of a player it is a penalty -- if it is not deliberate it is not."
Grant refused to blame his defenders for allowing Woodgate to get in behind them to head in the winner unmarked.
"We win as a team and we lose as a team. Always it is personal mistakes in football but we lost as a team today."
The Israeli also refused to accept that Chelsea's best chance of some silverware this season had gone.
"We are still in three other competitions and we will do our best. It was good for us to come to the final with all the injuries we had. It was not good to lose but now we must try to do our best in the other three competitions."