Myles Peart-Harris bagged his first goal for Swansea as the Brentford loanee helped to make it back-to-back wins with a 1-0 home triumph over Watford.
It was the fourth time in seven home league games this season that the Swans had kept a clean sheet as they pegged back fifth-placed Watford and moved up four places to 10th in the table.
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Brentford loanee and Swansea player Myles Peart-Harris scores his first goal for the club as they take a 1-0 lead against Watford, but was there an offside offence in the build-up?
Swansea were looking to build on their 2-1 win at Oxford at the weekend, which ended more than nine hours of goalless action from them. Watford were hoping to make it three wins in a row after impressive victories over Blackburn and Sheffield Wednesday.
But despite arriving on a high after their 6-2 win at Hillsborough three days earlier, they were forced onto the back foot from the start. Peart-Harris had the first chance in the third minute with an overhead kick that required a save and then the Brentford loanee hit the post.
A near-perfect pass across the six-yard box from the right by Peart-Harris was inches away from giving Jan Vipotnik a goal in successive games and then the home side thought they had finally broken the deadlock midway through the first half.
A well-worked short corner move ended with skipper Matt Grimes curling in a cross from the left which was well met by Harry Darling at the back post. Daniel Bachmann blocked the powerful header, but Darling’s fellow centre-back Ben Cabango was on hand to tap in only for an offside flag to rule out the goal.
It then took a further 15 minutes before the opening goal arrived. Josh Key linked with Goncalo Franco down the right side and the Portuguese midfielder’s cross to the far post was headed back across goal by Ronald. Bachmann was stranded and Peart-Harris was able to tap in his first goal for his loan club in his 12th appearance.
Watford head coach Tom Cleverley introduced German attacking midfielder Kwadwo Baah at the start of the second half in place of Yasser Larouci in an attempt to cause more problems in the attacking third after a first half in which they had only one shot that was off target.
By contrast, Swansea enjoyed 60 per cent possession and had seven shots and managed to notch their first home goal in four hours and 50 minutes since 29 September.
Cleverley made two more substitutions in the 61st minute and that came after back-to-back corners and some meaningful pressure from the visitors. They pressed hard in the second half but could not find a way to greatly trouble Lawrence Vigouroux in the home goal.
The managers
Swansea’s Luke Williams:
“I’m pleased because we played well again. The players deserved to win. For the first hour, we looked the only team capable of going to win the game. In the last half-hour, Watford posed a lot more pressure and we had to dig in.
“We were very intense, with lots of concentration and we quickly destroyed the opposition attacks.
“I feel like we’re becoming a team with an identity and we’re going in the right direction. Maybe we could have had a few more points, but we should be happy we are now two points off the play-offs.
“We have to maintain this now and we can look forward to a good season.”
Watford’s Tom Cleverley:
“It’s two steps forward, then one step back. That’s been the story of our season – as well as flat first halves. It’s something we have to address urgently. Two forward and one step back will give an upwards trajectory, but it’s inconsistent and that’s frustrating.
“I’ll hold my hands up, we showed too much respect. The players have to take responsibility because we had no identity for an hour. Until the substitutions, we didn’t look like scoring. We didn’t have much personality and after last weekend, that surprised me. We played with fear and that’s my responsibility. We let Swansea have too much possession.
“I can have no complaints with the result this evening. We must as a team learn that you can’t feel your way into games. Today, it was too little too late. Against good outfits like Swansea, you give yourselves much too much to do.
“I will look at myself. I felt like I didn’t give us any tactical edge to go and win this game and I have to take responsibility.”
