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.
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.
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