Watford 1-2 Swansea City: Ben Cabango heads late Swansea winner

Ben Cabango’s header in time added on saw Slaven Billic suffer a defeat in his first home game as Watford boss.

The visitors equalised on 52 minutes when Olivier Ntcham’s deflected effort from 20 yards gave Swansea parity.

Cabango headed Swansea ahead seven minutes into 17 minutes of added time after the match officials’ technology failed and ensured a very late finish.

The win lifts Swansea into the Championship play-off positions for the first time this season as they rise to sixth ahead of the visit of Sunderland, with Watford falling to 10th before a trip to Blackpool.

Unsurprisingly after a resounding 4-0 win at Stoke City in his first game as Hornets boss, Billic opted to select an unchanged side for the visit of Russell Martin’s side.

The visitors made two changes from Saturday’s thrilling 3-2 win at West Bromwich Albion, with Ntcham and Michael Obafemi – who came off the bench at the Hawthorns to score Swansea’s equaliser and winner respectively – preferred to Luke Cundle and Oli Cooper.

Billic was greeted warmly for his first game in charge at Vicarage Road, as he looked to emulate his three most recent predecessors, Vladimir Ivic, Xisco Munoz and Rob Edwards, in winning his first Watford home game.

There was little sign of either side winning, scoring or even testing the opposition goalkeeper in a tactical opening half-hour, but it was the hosts who slowly found their feet as the half wore on.

Keinan Davis was the first player to produce a shot on target as he beat Nathan Wood and fired at the Swansea goal, but Steven Benda was able to save with his feet.

However, Swansea’s reprieve was not a long one as they fell behind just moments later. Ken Sema’s trickery saw him beat Kyle Naughton and produce an inviting cross that Sarr smashed home.

Swansea thought they had equalised on 42 minutes when Daniel Bachmann spilled Matt Grimes’ shot and Obafemi buried the rebound, but the linesman’s flag for offside denied them.

Watford almost doubled their lead before the break when more hesitancy from Naughton saw Yaser Asprilla race clear and round Benda, but Wood denied a certain goal with a fine piece of last-gasp defending.

It took Swansea only seven second-half minutes to make Watford rue Asprilla’s missed chance, as Grimes’ fine progressive run allowed Ntcham space and his deflected effort from 20 yards deceived Bachmann.

For so long defensively impressive at Vicarage Road, Swansea’s equaliser continued a recent trend of the Hornets conceding at home.

Watford have conceded seven goals in their last four league games at Vicarage Road, more goals than they conceded at home in their previous 19 Championship games.

Neither side was content to play for a point and Hassane Kamara came close to putting the Hornets back in front on 70 minutes, but Benda smothered his close-range effort.

Watford saw a penalty appeal rightly waved away with 10 minutes remaining as tempers flared in the dug-outs, before a lengthy delay caused by the officials’ technology failing prompted anger from both sets of supporters.

That saw 17 minutes of time added on, so there was a decent chance of a winning goal even after Piroe’s tame shot at Bachmann on 89 minutes failed to produce what looked likely to be a goal after Ryan Manning’s set-up.

However, another Manning cross did provide the winner as Cabango headed home, unmarked, from his teasing cross.

The 97th-minute goal still gave the Swans 10 minutes to navigate, but Watford were unable to respond until the final minute of added on time when they saw a goal ruled out for a handball in a crowded penalty area.

It took an age for the decision to be made by the officials, with the match eventually finishing after 19 added on minutes.