Competition - Sky Bet Championship Venue - Vicarage Road Date - 12 March 2025 Kick off - 7:45pm Following 2 wins and a draw in his first 3 games in charge - the latest being a 1-0 home win over Play Off hopefuls Middlesbrough - next up for Alan Sheehan’s Swansea squad is a visit to Vicarage Road to play Watford. Last Saturday, the Swans’ unbeaten run under caretaker boss Alan Sheehan continued as Eom Ji-Sung's fine goal dealt a blow to Middlesbrough's Championship play-offs hopes. South Korea winger Eom produced a classy run and finish from outside the penalty area. Eom's first Swans goal - in his 30th appearance for the club – was the least Sheehan's team deserved for their impressive first-half display. Tommy Conway came closest to responding for a disappointing Middlesbrough when his shot was saved by Lawrence Vigouroux. The Swans’ victory means Sheehan has an impressive return of seven points from three games - and no goals conceded - having taken charge following the departure of Luke Williams last month. The latest success further eases any relegation concerns that Swansea fans may have, with the Welsh side now 12 points clear of the bottom three in 15th. Whilst the Swans were beating Boro, Josh Coburn was again Millwall's match-winner, as they came from behind to beat Watford at Vicarage Road and boost their hopes of a Championship play-off place. Mattie Pollock gave the Hornets the lead with his first league goal for the club, but Casper de Norre slotted into the corner after the break to level the score. And Coburn - who scored the only goal at Derby in Millwall's previous away game - headed home a right-wing cross as Watford suffered defeat at home for the sixth time this season. Watford remain 11th, six points adrift of the top six. The Swans have played Watford on 56 previous occasions, winning 26, drawing 11, and losing 19. In the corresponding match last season, the teams played out a 1-1 draw: Turning to tomorrow evening, Jeremy Simpson will be the man in the middle. It will be the first Swans fixture Simpson has taken charge of since a 2-0 win over Bristol City at the Swansea.com Stadium in March 2023. Despite being included on the National List of Referees in 2012 and taking charge of his first Championship match in February 2013, this will be just the eighth time he has overseen a Swans game. Simpson’s journey as an official began as an assistant. He gained promotion to PGMOL as an assistant referee during the 2005-06 season. He progressed quickly and by 2007 was promoted to Select Group 1 (working in the Premier League) and the FIFA international list. But in 2010, Simpson switched his focus from the flag to the whistle and took charge of his first EFL match two years later. He has been included in the Select Group 2 officials list since its inception in 2016. So far this season, Simpson has taken charge of eight matches handing out 29 yellow cards and two reds. Tomorrow, he will be assisted by Graham Kane and Bhupinder Singh Gill. James Linington will be the fourth official. With Manager Tom Cleverly under renewed pressure at a Club renowned for sacking Managers ‘at the drop of a hat’, Watford can be expected to be fired up to get their Play-Off campaign back on track. in fact, on Sunday Cleverly became the first Watford manager since Javi Garcia in 2019 to last a whole 365 days in the role and he will be hoping that they can still get into a Play-Off place. That said, I think that the Swans are more than capable of returning to South Wales with at least a point. I’m going for a 1-1 draw.
2-1 Swans. Won’t be able to see the game as in the US and with a 6hr time difference, I’ll still be working.
Cardiff lost a huge game for them last night. The winner was scored by someone called Aasgard but I’m positive it was Greta Thunberg….. please log in to view this image
Thanks for the in depth preview Taff. If AS has finally got rid of the LW effect we can win this game at Vicarage Road and continue this unbeaten run. 2 nil to the Swans. PS pity about our big city cousins up the road losing a game they had to win....if only we had turned up at Legoland in January and taken another 3 points off them.
Cheers Ugo They’ve got some tough games coming up whilst Eustace has certainly improved Derby since his arrival. 5 or 6 points should see us safe - let’s get some of them tonight
Home games coming up against Derby Plymouth and Hull should be bankers for us with the apparent change to exciting entertaining football as well
We've got back to back against Burnley and Leeds after the Watford match though, hope we don't get beaten badly and lose the confidence we've started to build in the last 3 games. It's conceivable that if we lose tonight we could end up losing 3 on the bounce.
I heard that Watford were ok first half against Millwall but pants in the second. They can play well but are really inconsistent. Heart says away win but head says draw. We certainly shouldn't lose on current form. Desperately hoping we see continued enthusiasm for the new style of play, with us having a go. What the hell, 1 - 2
When we played up at Turf Moor although we didnt look like winning neither did they until the 94th minute with a dubious penalty. Against Leeds at home we should have had at least a draw but played suicidally for the last few minutes. We held our own in both games.
Hannes Delcroix starts for Swansea City against Watford in the only change from the weekend win over Middlesbrough. The Belgian centre-half comes in for Harry Darling, who misses out through a hip injury. The Swans are otherwise unaltered from the win over Boro, with Lawrence Vigouroux continuing in goal. Delcroix joins Josh Key, Josh Tymon and skipper Ben Cabango in the Swansea defence. Lewis O’Brien and Gonçalo Franco once again make up an all-action midfield combination, with Liam Cullen operating in advance of them. Jisung Eom – fresh from his first Swansea goal – and Ronald are on the flanks, while Žan Vipotnik again leads the line for the Swans. Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux; Josh Key, Ben Cabango (captain), Hannes Delcroix, Josh Tymon; Lewis O’Brien, Gonçalo Franco; Ronald, Liam Cullen, Myles Peart-Harris; Žan Vipotnik. Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Jay Fulton, Joe Allen, Josh Ginnelly, Florian Bianchini, Cyrus Christie, Kyle Naughton, Ollie Cooper, Sam Parker. Watford: Egil Selvik, Mattie Pollock, Tom Ince, Giorgi Chakvetadze, Imran Louza, Moussa Sissoko (captain), Tom Dele-Bashiru, James Abankwah, Yasser Larouci, Edo Kayembe, Ryan Andrews. Substitutes: Jonathan Bond, Jeremy Ngakia, Francisco Sierralta, Rocco Vata, Vakoun Bayo, James Morris, Caleb Wiley, Zavier Massiah-Edwards, Leo Ramirez-Espain.
Watford overloading midfield but we're having joy on the wings. Nice to see us not messing about in front of the keeper.
