Most of the current Quakers squad are now out of contract, and Watson is prioritising improving the quality of the group as he targets a play-off push in a very competitive league next season.
Darlington finished the current campaign in 11th position, an improvement of five places and 13 points on last year’s great escape, but they finished eight points adrift of the top seven.
“It’s been a really open season,” said Watson. “At times we looked good enough to be there, but we’ve wasted a lot of opportunities, we’ve drawn too many games.
“But it was always going to be a tough ask to go from where we were last season to the play-offs in one season.
“Terry (Mitchell) and I have learned a lot this season, we’ve got decisions to make on a few players, then we’ll set our stall out for recruitment of players to take us a step further next year.”
Quakers have drawn nine games at home this season, but there was only a fleeting chance of a tenth in the second half on Saturday as they enjoyed a comfortable win.
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On another bumpy pitch which made ball control difficult, the home side took the lead on three minutes when Cedric Main set up Will Hatfield to fire into the bottom corner from just outside the area.
They missed some good chances to increase the lead. Jack Maskell was denied twice by goalkeeper Josh Blunkell, and Main was just off target after he’d dribbled in from the right as Quakers dominated.
Their superiority was rewarded on the half-hour mark when Caden Kelly, fresh from his trial at Wycombe, sent Main racing clear, and he was pushed to the ground in the area by defender Kyle Hammond, who was dismissed. Main sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot for his 11th goal of the season.
Chances came and went for Quakers, with Kallum Griffiths denied by a point-blank save, and they were stunned on 72 minutes when Teval Allen found space in the area and beat Peter Jameson with a deflected shot on the turn.
But three minutes later it was game over when sub Ben Hedley controlled a Louis Storey pass well on the left, and threaded the ball through for Main to run on and beat the keeper.
“We were desperate to win the game for the supporters,” said Watson. “I thought we pretty much dominated the first half before the sending off, but sometimes a sending off doesn’t work the way you want it.
“I thought we had a flat spell in the second half, and they got a goal which we were really disappointed in, because we were looking to press forward.
“That gave us a jolt again. We were desperate to win the game for our supporters.”
