Swansea City 1-0 Watford: FLW report as the Swans make it back-to-back Championship wins | OneFootball

FLW report live from the Swansea.com Stadium as Swansea City host Watford in the Championship

Swansea City made it back-to-back wins in the Championship with a 1-0 win over Watford at the Swansea.com Stadium.

Swansea dominated the first half and got their reward ten minutes before half-time when the impressive Myles Peart-Harris broke the deadlock and scored his first goal for the club.

Watford were second best for the most part but did put Swansea under late pressure and some brave defending was needed, but the Swans' defence held strong to seal all three points.

Swansea City 1-0 Watford

Myles Peart-Harris had the first attempt on goal after just three minutes when he managed to get on the end of a deflected cross, but his looping effort went straight into the hands of Watford goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann.

Peart-Harris came even closer to giving Swansea the lead just moments later, and he hit the post with a toe-poke after seeing his initial shot blocked with less than five minutes on the clock.

Brentford loanee Peart-Harris started the game excellently and came close to registering an impressive assist after beating two Watford defenders, but Zan Vipotnik couldn't quite connect with his cross into the box.

Swansea had the ball in the back of the net a couple of moments later after 20 minutes, but Ben Cabango saw his goal disallowed for offside after Harry Darling had forced Bachmann into a fine save.

Peart-Harris finally got the goal he deserved with ten minutes of the first half remaining after Ronald headed a Goncalo Franco cross back across goal, allowing the Brentford loanee to slide in for the simplest of finishes.

Watford had their best spell of the first half after Swansea's goal with Festy Ebosele looking dangerous on the right-hand side, but they were unable to create any clear-cut chances, ensuring Luke Williams' side held a well-deserved lead at half-time.

The first chance of the second half came to Swansea midfielder Franco when Ronald's deflected cross fell to him in the box, but his half volley was way over the bar and didn't come close to troubling Bachmann in the Watford goal.

With just shy of an hour on the clock, Ronald tried an audacious effort from the best part of 45 yards out and while it didn't trouble Bachmann in the end, it certainly had the Watford goalkeeper scrambling back.

Watford were starting to pile on the pressure with less than half an hour left and Ryan Andrews saw a goalbound shot blocked after good work from Ebosele but Lawrence Vigouroux claimed the resulting corner with ease.

With ten minutes left, Watford's Giorgi Chakvetadze saw a curling effort fly just over after cutting in from the left, and it served as a reminder to Swansea that the game was far from done yet.

Josh Key gifted the Hornets a chance to nick a point when he gave the ball away in a dangerous position with just two minutes remaining, but much to the delight of the Swansea.com Stadium faithful, Imran Louza's shot went well over the bar.

Watford continued to pile on the pressure late on and brought goalkeeper Bachmann up for a late corner as they went in search of a point, but Swansea held on for a deserved three points and made it two wins on the bounce.

Swansea City player ratings

Lawrence Vigouroux - 7

Josh Key - 7

Ben Cabango - 7

Harry Darling - 8

Kyle Naughton - 7 (Cyrus Christie (75) - 6)

Matt Grimes - 7

Goncalo Franco - 8 (Joe Allen (75) - 6)

Ronald - 8

Myles Peart-Harris - 9

Liam Cullen - 6

Zan Vipotnik - 6 (Florian Bianchini (67) - 6)

Unused subs: Jon McLaughlin, Nelson Abbey, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, Kristian Pedersen, Azeem Abdulai, Aimar Govea.

Watford player ratings

Daniel Bachman - 6

Francisco Sierralta - 5

Mattie Pollock - 5

Festy Ebosele - 7

Yasser Larouci - 6 (Kwadwo Baah (45) - 7)

Tom Ince - 6 Mamadou Doumbia (74) - 6)

Pierre Dwomoh - 5 (Imram Louza (62) - 6)

Edo Kayembe - 6

Giorgi Chakvetadze - 7

Ken Sema - 6 (Ryan Andrews (62) - 6)

Vakoun Bayo - 6 (Daniel Jebbison (83) - 6)

Unused subs: Jonathan Bond, Kevin Keben, Antonio Tikvic, James Morris.

Post-match reaction from Luke Williams

Reflecting on his side's 1-0 win, Swansea boss Williams said: "I'm pleased that we played well again. I think it's fair for me to say that the players deserved to win and the first hour we looked like the only team that we were going to win the game, but in the last half hour Watford applied a lot more pressure to us, and we coped with that pretty well.

"I am pleased, and I feel like the players deserve the victory today.

"They carried on from the previous performance and I think we've been close to that sort of performance, and it feels different afterwards if you didn't win.

"I don't think the Millwall performance is a long way off from either of those two, but of course, we get the sucker punch and then when you leave the stadium you have a sicky feeling, so you don't remember if the performance was too good or not, but the way the players approached the game from the beginning was very intense, concentrating a lot, playing attacking football and very quickly destroy the opposition attacks.

"This is a type of football that I think is enjoyable, and I hope it's more enjoyable for the fans when we play like that."

Post-match reaction from Tom Cleverley

Speaking in the aftermath of his side's defeat, Watford boss Tom Cleverley said: "That's been the story of the season, as well as the flat first halves, and it's really something we need to address urgently.

"Two steps forward, one step back, your trajectory will be in an upward way, and it is, but we can be so much better, and we keep taking the one step back.

"Luckily we've got a game in three days, and we can put this behind us, but it's disappointing not to build on the positives from Sheffield Wednesday.

"I'll hold my hands up. Out of possession, we paid Swansea too much respect, and we were trying to play more of a transition game, but without Baah that's probably something I'll have to hold my hands up for, but in possession the players have to take responsibility."