Jamal Lowe will know Watford well having been born in Harrow and played for just about every club eligible for the Herts Senior Cup apart from the Golden Boys. He got up close and personal with the Hornets here, scoring two goals as the Swans recovered from the concession of a Tom Cleverley opener to win a key game between third and fifth.

There were only three points between the sides with the two meanest defences in the division, so there was never going to be much to choose between them at the Liberty Stadium. You hoped it was going to prove significant when the Hornets went ahead in an away game for only the fourth time this season after 20 minutes. The feel-good factor looked to have continued from the Boxing Day win over Norwich and spilled into South Wales.

But they really needed a second goal to give themselves a cushion, or in the end claim a draw, against a very decent Swansea side – and the Hornets have now only done that, scored twice in a game, in two of their last 11 league matches.

Swansea are a bit more free-scoring and they scored one before the break and once after, both through the lively Lowe, to extend a nice little run to one defeat in eight, five of which have been wins. They go back up to second, six points ahead of the Golden Boys. You could tell how much this one meant to them by the way they reacted at the full-time whistle. While the Hornets did not do enough to win this one, they could stake a claim for a draw, particularly on the strength of a flurry of activity in the Swans penalty box in the minutes between 70 and 80.

The first half was arguably the most watchable first 45 minutes away from home this season, right up there with the helter-skelter opening half at QPR. There was a lovely tempo to proceedings, the sort you'd expect in a duel between two of the top five. Both sides' preferred mode of attack was down the right, with Connor Roberts providing a fresh supply of ammunition down the Swans' right and Ismaīla Sarr doing the same down the other side, although perhaps a bit more defensively.

Roberts fizzed two across in the first ten minutes, the first in the corridor of uncertainty that away defenders and home attackers were a whisker away from guiding past Ben Foster. The second Jamal Lowe really should have left for the better-placed Jay Fulton.

The Hornets weathered that early storm and then responded with some punches of their own. Ben Wilmot, on the return to the club where he has cult-hero status after his winner in the South Wales derby last season, did superbly not only to chase and win a lost cause in the bottom right-hand corner, but then to sling over a first-time cross with his weaker left foot that Andre Gray threatened to do what he did at the same end three years ago for his first Watford goal.

The chance went begging but Cleverley, the only survivor from the two sides when they last met, made no mistake with the one that fell his way from 20 yards after as many minutes, rifling it first time into the bottom corner. It was his third of the season and the first time the team had scored from open play away from home since the game at Loftus Road in November.

Wounded by conceding their first goal in more than five hours of football, Swansea came again and were never going to roll over and have their tummy tickled at a venue where they have lost just once this season. Foster had to make a flying save on 37 minutes to deny Andre Ayew, although it was straight at him, and one from similar range soon after from Korey Smith. The Swans must have wondered if there was going to find a way past the former England 'keeper, but they kept plugging away and deservedly drew level just before the break when Lowe, who worked under Hall of Famer Kenny Jackett at Portsmouth, bent one round Francisco Sierralta and Foster for his fifth goal in five games.

Muñoz sought to stiffen the left side at the break by introducing Adam Masina, who was always only going to play a maximum of 45 minutes as he works his way back from a few months on the sidlelines. The Spaniard made a second change on the hour, bringing on James Garner for Nathaniel Chalobah who had done well but who was on a booking and running the risk of picking up a second yellow.

A second yellow did not materialise, but a second goal for Lowe did, the summer signing nodding in a cross from Smith, the delivery again coming from the right. It was a real blow that one.

The Hornets did have a real go at fashioning an equaliser. Sarr got in three times down the right; the winger had a header from a corner blocked at the near post; Troy Deeney had one superbly blocked by Marc Gueyi and then the captain was really annoyed at one he side-footed over. The frustration was still etched on his face and those of the players as they headed down the tunnel at full-time, knowing this was a point that slipped away.