Can the Swans make it three in a row with a win against Watford?

The Swans go in search this evening of a third successive league win and a third successive away league win at the same time as they take on Watford at Vicarage Road with an ultimate aim of putting more gap between them and the bottom three.

After 2-1 wins over Sunderland and Blackburn in our last two league outings the positivity of the results have been dampened a little by not being able to extend that gap over the bottom three.   For many sides – us included – it threatens to be a nail biting end to the season with so few points currently separating so many but if we continue in the vein of the last couple of games we will get ourselves out of trouble.

The January introduction of Ronald and Placheta to the wide positions in the team has certainly had an impact with Ronald in particular catching the eye and led Luke Williams to sing his praises this week “We watched a lot of footage of him from the recruitment team and when I spoke to him you could tell he was a tough guy with determination. There is a lot more to come and we will see more exciting individual play from him.

“He is applying himself fantastically to his role and he is showing the courage to score as well as try and create for his teammates.”

Ronald of course scored the double in the win at Sunderland and was a key part in a strong first half for the Swans at the weekend although Williams will want to make sure that there is more of the first half from the weekend on display than the second where Blackburn had more than enough possession to worry the Swans.

Williams is going to be forced into a change for this game given the absence of Jamie Paterson which could give a chance to Charlie Patino to make a rare start.    Joe Allen is likely to keep his place in midfield having impressed on Saturday meaning we are assuming just one change for the Swans when the line ups are announced at 6.45 this evening.

Watford are also a side under pressure having failed to win at home since November and that factor shone through in the pre-match comments of manager Valérien Ismaël who said “A win – this is what we need. There is a clear message – whatever it takes, we have to win the game. It is important for us and everyone. We are not doing the job to lose games, and create frustration, and create negativity, and not create the environment that we expected and we want. We had already a good environment, we just need to work on that and make sure that we just put things in the right direction now.”

Watford welcomed Jeremy Ngakia returned from injury to play right-back at Millwall, but he came off after 66 minutes and Valerien Ismael revealed yesterday he will now be ruled out for another four weeks after sustaining a contact injury to his knee.

“Ryan Andrews will be back in the team tomorrow,” Ismael stated.

“He will have the chance to show his quality and we know what we have with him.”

Just two points separate the two clubs tonight ahead of the game and both will have been relieved at a set of results on Tuesday night that did not add pressure to them with both Plymouth and Stoke losing with Birmingham only picking up a point and Blackburn and Millwall sharing the spoils at Ewood Park.  Avoiding defeat therefore for the Swans will move us further away from the bottom three ahead of Sunday’s visit to Bristol City.

JackArmy.net predicts: Watford 1 Swansea City 1

You can keep up to date with the views of the fans both pre, during and post match via our matchday thread which for this game can be accessed here.   Kick off at Vicarage Road is 7.45pm and the game is available to view on Sky Sports via the red button.