Could not connect to server: ws://localhost:8080

I have been trying to connect to a very simple example web socket server using the command /connect. When trying and doing the command /connect localhost:8080, I get the error "Could not connect to server: ws://localhost:8080" on mc, after a few seconds after executing the command. 

Before this I set up the simple server, using example code from github (https://github.com/websockets/ws#simple-server). Executing the web socket server seems to execute fine, with no issues, but on running the command I see no output from the code. Even when debugging further looking at specific web socket server events, eg. error, I still get no output. 

I'm lead to believe that this is a problem on the mc side, and the mc client will not connect to my web socket server.

Extra info:

• I'm running the command inside my own world, with cheat's active.
• I've tried doing the same on a world with education edition enabled, ( it seemed like web sockets were designed to be used on this mode ).
• I've tried using my local ip address instead of local host, as well as using a different port number.