By David Williams

Michael Duff admitted he was left frustrated by Swansea City’s defeat to Watford, a second successive reverse that has dropped the club back down to 18th in the Championship table.

The Swans manager claimed he was baffled by a decision to rule out a goal for Kristian Pedersen for pushing before Ken Sema struck his first goal of the season in spectacular fashion to earn Watford a 1-0 win.

Harry Darling and Matt Grimes went closest to scoring for the hosts in the first half while Vakoun Bayo should have netted for the Hornets in what was a tight affair.

Pedersen thought he had put the Swans ahead after 72 minutes when he headed Grimes’ corner beyond Daniel Bachmann, but the effort was ruled out.

And visiting substitute Sema’s piledriver in the 82nd minute ensured Watford left south Wales with all three points.

Swansea City v Watford | Extended Highlights https://t.co/K2u5n0Afd5 #swans #efl #jacks pic.twitter.com/kBO7i1Bnqs

— JackArmy.net (@swansnews) October 24, 2023

Duff insisted: “I thought we had a good goal disallowed. I think it’s that type of night where, if that goes in, we win the game.

“They (officials) said there was a foul in the build-up to it, but I’ve watched it back several times. I don’t know where the foul is.

“For us not to see where the foul is supposed to have taken place is frustrating because it was one of those nights, it was fine margins.

“It was always going to be one goal that settled it. We felt we scored a good goal first.

“We had a lot of the ball, but we huffed and puffed a little bit, we could not quite open them up but we had enough chances to get something out of the game.

“We actually started off quite well, we pressed and got on the front foot and got high up the pitch.

“It was just a lack of quality that cost us, but it should have been a draw and that’s the frustration.”

Michael Duff was left ruing the decision to chalk off Kristian Pedersen’s second-half header after seeing his side suffer a 1-0 defeat against Watford.

— Swansea City AFC (@SwansOfficial) October 24, 2023

The result means the Swans have suffered back-to-back defeats following a four-match winning streak which had lifted them up the table.

They now have no more midweek fixtures until the end of November with successive Saturday fixtures starting at Blackburn Rovers this weekend, before hosting Sunderland, travelling to Ipswich, then welcoming Hull City before a visit to Leeds.

Defender Pedersen also claimed he was left confused by the decision to chalk off his goal.

“I didn’t see what happened behind me, I was just told there was a foul. I didn’t ask the ref, that’s just what I was told about by my teammates,” he said.

“I’m gutted I didn’t get my goal because I am looking forward to getting a first goal for the club, but I can’t do anything about it so we have to look forward now.
“It was not a great result, I felt that in the first part of the game we did okay, but then we let them into the game.

“We were a bit flat in the second half, we know we need to be better and we have to try and make sure we do that in this next game.”

Michael Duff baffled by controversial disallowed goal as he reveals extent of Swansea City injury list | @tomEcoleman #swans https://t.co/G8iSN2np8Z

— Swansea City Online (@SwanseaCityLive) October 25, 2023

For Pedersen, it was his first start since he picked up a groin injury against Sheffield Wednesday a month ago.

But the centre-back is feeling fit and ready to go after a frustrating start to life in SA1.

“I feel fine,” he said about his recovery.

“I want to play and I’ll do my best to be an option for the team. It’s not fun being injured because you want to be on the pitch helping your teammates.

“Right now, I’m disappointed with the result because I think we should have at least got a 0-0.

“But I think we can change that going forward and put that right for Blackburn. We know we’re good players, so we just need to implement the game plan and show that.”

The omission of Mykola slipped quietly by us ! #Swans #Hornets #SkyBetChampionship

The rest was obvious with injuries affecting the team selection.

Swansea City: Carl Rushworth, Kristian Pedersen, Jay Fulton, Harry Darling, Matt Grimes (captain), Jerry Yates, Jamal Lowe,… pic.twitter.com/Bxm02AkimF

— Swansea Independent (@swansea_indy) October 24, 2023