Report | Watford 1 Swansea City 0
Swansea City suffered a first defeat in four games as Moussa Sissoko’s first-half effort gave Watford the spoils at Vicarage Road.
The former Tottenham midfielder swept home the winner for the Hornets after the Swans had given up the ball in their own half.
That proved one of only two shots on target for the home side, but the Swans were unable to make the most of a number of promising attacking situations.
Liam Cullen and Zan Vipotnik went agonisingly close to scoring, while Jisung Eom found the side-netting.
It was a first goal conceded and a first defeat since Alan Sheehan assumed caretaker charge, and the Irishman would have grounds to be frustrated his side did not get something from the game.
The Swans had shown one change from the win over Middlesbrough as Hannes Delcroix came in for the injured Harry Darling in defence.
After a steady opening, the Swans were the first to lift the tempo when Goncalo Franco hustled Giorgi Chakvetadze off the ball in determined fashion and drove forward to find Vipotnik.
The Slovenian quickly got the ball out of his feet, and his firm show looked destined for the far corner until Watford keeper Egil Selvik superbly parried.
Watford responded, with Tom Ince heading over from a Ryan Andrews cross and Tom Dele-Bashiru volleying wide.
But Swansea did look lively, and Lewis O’Brien and Josh Tymon exchanged passes to start a sharp attack that ended with Vipotnik heading a Josh Key cross into the ground and on into the gloves of Selvik.
Tymon produced two excellent pieces of covering to prevent Watford getting in behind with quick switches of play to Ryan Andrews, before Yasser Larouci dragged an effort across goal.
Tymon again covered brilliantly a few moments later and diverted the ball to a fellow black shirt, but the Swans immediately wastefully gave the ball away and Watford took full advantage as they drove forward to tee up Sissoko, who swept a rising shot into the top corner.
The goal rather knocked the Swans out of their stride, and they were grateful that James Abankwah lacked the composure to pick out a fellow yellow shirt after his lung-bursting run had taken play from the edge of one penalty area to the other.
They did, however, come close to an equaliser on the stroke of half-time when Cullen’s powerful header from Tymon’s corner just cleared the bar.
Full-backs Tymon and Josh Key made strong forward surges early in the second half, but were unable to find a teammate with their attempted final ball.
Cullen had an effort blocked but the clearer chances went to Watford when Andrews fired just wide of the far post after reaching a crossfield pass.
Swansea then sent Key racing into the box to get a shot away that Selvik saved, but the offside flag was already up.
Edo Kayembe saw his attempted lob of Vigouroux from distance land on the roof of the net just past the hour mark but Swansea were causing problems of their own, and Eom found the side-netting after Tymon’s excellent cross – following good work by O’Brien – had picked the Korean out at the near post.
Sheehan turned to his bench and introduced Jay Fulton, Josh Ginnelly and Florian Bianchini for Franco, Eom and Vipotnik respectively.
Cullen had a header diverted over the bar as Swansea ramped up the pressure but they could not find a leveller.
Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux; Josh Key, Ben Cabango (captain), Hannes Delcroix, Josh Tymon; Lewis O’Brien, Gonçalo Franco (Jay Fulton 74); Ronald, Liam Cullen (Ollie Cooper 96), Jisung Eom (Josh Ginnelly 74); Žan Vipotnik (Florian Bianchini 74).
Unused Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Joe Allen, Cyrus Christie, Kyle Naughton, Sam Parker.
Watford: Egil Selvik, Mattie Pollock, Tom Ince (Francisco Sierallta 83), Giorgi Chakvetadze (Rocco Vata 83), Imran Louza, Moussa Sissoko (captain), Tom Dele-Bashiru (Vakoun Bayo 64), James Abankwah, Yasser Larouci (Jeremy Ngakia 71), Edo Kayembe, Ryan Andrews (Caleb Wiley 83).
Unused Substitutes: Jonathan Bond, James Morris, Caleb Zavier Massiah-Edwards, Leo Ramirez-Espain.
Referee: Jeremy Simpson
Attendance: 16,097