Jack Maskell scored twice, including a last minute winner, as Quakers kept their National League North play-off hopes alive with a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Blackwell Meadows, but the victory came at a cost, with Elliot Forbes and Scott Barrow both going off injured.
With Kallum Griffiths already sidelined, it leaves Darlington short at the back and Watson was planning to assess his options ahead of Saturday’s trip to face Peterborough Sports.
“We’re going to have to have a look at what we’ve got now,” said Darlington’s boss.
“We might have to even bring someone in, we’re looking short there in defence.
“Scotty and Elliot came off with injury and Griff is out. We don’t carry that many defenders. We’ll have to have a serious think about it. We’ll do a headcount and see what we’ve got for Peterborough.”
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Watson hailed his side’s resilience after they dug deep to beat Radcliffe, a second successive win on the back of three straight defeats.
Darlington are 10th, seven points off the play-off places but have two games in hand on the sides above them and Watson has challenged his players to “keep winning”.
Maskell’s opener on Tuesday night was cancelled out just before the hour mark but the striker hit the winner in the last minute.
Watson said: “It was a hard game to enjoy but we had to find a way to try to win.
“I really like the way they play, the management is great and they’ve had some great wins recently. You can see they go for it and what you saw in the second half was two teams going for the jugular. Luckily for us we got that break.
“It wasn’t a classic performance but we showed resilience and we came out with the result.
“It just keeps us there. We have games in hand. I’m not sure if we can peg it back but we’ll give it the best we can.
“A lot didn’t go right tonight but we found a way to win and it’s three points.”
Watson was also delighted for Maskell. It’s been a testing first season for the striker since his summer arrival from Dunston but Darlington’s boss believes Quakers are now starting to see what the youngster is capable of.
He said: “Jack has had a fantastic last four or five games. He’s held the ball up, won headers, scored, created – and he’s only 20.
“We have to be patient with these lads. We have to bring kids through and give them a chance and give them time and believe in them.
“We’ve seen little changes in Jack. We’ve had conversations with him and we’ve seen little changes in the way he goes about things. He’s growing in confidence.
“He has a really bright future, I’ve said it all along, there’s a player in there and hopefully we’re starting to see it.”
