Swansea slipped to a second successive defeat, to allow leaders Norwich to edge 14 points clear of third place, despite a dominant performance which Korey Smith felt deserved much more.

The former Canaries midfielder was part of the Swans team to lose 1-0 at home to South Wales rivals Cardiff on Saturday evening, replacing the injured Conor Hourihane in the 18th minute - following on from Norwich being held to a 1-1 home draw by Blackburn earlier in the day.

Watford's 3-0 home win over Birmingham cut City's lead at the summit to eight points but with the third-placed Swans losing a second successive game, after a 3-0 midweek defeat at Bournemouth, promotion is looking even more likely for Norwich.

“I think we had 75 per cent of the possession and 23 (attempts at goal), but at the end of the day, the ball wasn't going in the net and we conceded a goal and lost 1-0 - that's the only stat that counts,” Smith told his club's website.

“We've got to try and continue to play how we did in this game; it was probably our best performance for a while, but the most important thing is getting results."

Remarkably, neither Swansea or Cardiff have won both derby games in a season in the fixture's 109-year history, with Aden Flint's early header for the play-off chasing Bluebirds ensuring that remains the case.

Smith, who made 73 appearances for Norwich between 2009 and 2013, added: “We're just gutted for the fans. We wanted to be the first team to win the double, but sometimes it's not meant to be.”

Norwich now know that five wins from their final eight games will seal promotion, even in the unlikely scenario of Swansea winning all of their remaining nine fixtures.

Nine points is likely to be more than enough though, with promotion rivals still having games against each other. The average total for teams finishing second in the past 10 seasons has been 88 points, with City already on 83.

Away games against Preston and Derby are either side of a home clash with Huddersfield following the international break, with all three teams not quite clear of relegation trouble yet.