Quakers conceded two uncharacteristic goals in the first 11 minutes, giving themselves far too much to do against a dogged home side who had lost 4-1 at home to Chester a few days before.
The defeat means Darlington have dropped out of the top-seven play-off positions, with Chorley overtaking them. They now have three tough games coming up against Kidderminster, Curzon Ashton and Buxton in the next eight days.
“The first 15 minutes decided the game,” said Watson. “Leamington looked a bit rusty on Tuesday, but it worked the opposite way for them on Saturday. They were really bright and on the front foot, but we didn’t do our jobs well enough. We weren’t mentally or physically sharp enough in the first half. The goals killed us.
“We tried to play side to side, but once a team gets a two-goal lead and they bank up on you, you have to move the ball really quickly, and it wasn’t the pitch to move the ball with much quality. We were more dominant in the second half but we didn’t get enough quality attempts on goal.
“I thought we were naive at times, we made challenges for balls that we simply couldn’t win, and conceded fouls against a team that works hard on set-plays and long throws
“But I’m not going over the top about it with the players, they’re as disappointed as anybody. They’re a really good, genuine group of lads.”
Quakers almost opened the scoring themselves on two minutes when a confident move ended with Jack Lambert having a shot deflected wide, but the Brakes took the lead with their first serious attack on five minutes when Josh Quaynor crossed deep from the left to the far post where Henry Landers headed firmly past Pete Jameson.
Six minutes later, Quakers had plenty of work to do after they conceded a second. They didn’t deal with a long throw by Rob Evans, which was flicked on for Tim Berridge to steer past Jameson.
And if it wasn’t for Jameson stopping Landers when he was clean through, the game could have been over by the quarter-hour mark.
Quakers slowly got back into the game, and created a couple of half-chances before they pulled a goal back just on half-time when Lambert’s chip into the box was headed out as far as Will Hatfield who took a touch and then beat Callum Hawkins with a dipping right-foot shot to add to his list of spectacular goals this season.
If Quakers were hoping that they would open the home side up more in the second half, they were mistaken. They had some good possession and got into some good positions, but they didn’t create many chances at all, the best of them being an effort by Lambert from outside the box straight at Hawkins. Cedric Main also just failed to get a touch to a good cross by Lambert.
Darlington finished with ten men after central defender Toby Lees was shown his second yellow card for a foul, which means that he misses the home game with Curzon Ashton on Saturday.
