Darlington were in the top seven at the turn of the year last season but slipped out of contention in the second half of the campaign and ended up finishing eight points adrift of the play-off places.
As Watson prepares for his second full season in charge, which starts with a home game against Chorley today, Darlington’s boss is looking up.
“We need an overall improvement,” said Watson, who is pleased with his team’s increased threat from set-pieces and the various sources of goals in pre season.
“There were times last season when we thought we weren’t far away, but in the end, we were a dozen goals short of being there. That’s been the focus of pre-season, to score more goals, but not forgetting about the other end as well.
“In this league, you’re rarely going to go on a long run of winning four or five games in a row. When we’re in tight games, we’ve got to make sure that we don’t lose them. It’s a matter of minimising our losses, but that’s not rocket science either.
“That’s this league all over, there weren’t many teams putting five or six game winning runs together.
“It’s a really tough start beginning against Chorley. The first month is going to throw loads of different challenges against us and playing styles, and we’ve got to adapt to them.”
Quakers start their tenth campaign in National League North with a tough home game against the Magpies who are expected to be amongst the frontrunners for promotion, and they go into the game on the back of a good pre-season in which they’ve won six out of seven games played.
“I was happy with pre-season,” said Watson. “Before the games started the lads looked really sharp and had kept themselves in really good nick.
“As the games went on, they did a lot of good things, and we slightly tweaked the way we play maybe, so now we’ve got a few options to cope with different challenges both with and without the ball. Some teams provide tougher challenges, so we have to be prepared to play in different ways.
“We’ve got a really strong dressing room, there’s a really strong togetherness, they all get on really well, and hopefully that will stand us in good stead for a really long tough season. We want to take that little step further as a club.
“Some people say that performances in friendlies don’t matter, but I think they do. Maybe apart from one half at Dunston, I’ve been really happy with performances.”
Watson is hoping that summer signings Tom Allen, Josh Scott, Aidan Rutledge and Will McGowan will all play a major part, but now that seven subs have been introduced – five of which can be used – the door is open for under 23 strikers Matty Kirokiro and Jack Mortimer to make impressions.
Quakers have a couple of injury problems. Recent signing Alfie Myers-Smith is out for several weeks with a knee injury, while midfielder Matty Cornish is out with an ankle problem. Skipper Tom Platt will be having a fitness test.
Quakers haven’t had much joy against Chorley in recent seasons. Since Quakers beat them 3-0 at Blackwell Meadows in February 2022, they’ve played each other six times, and Quakers have picked up just two points, one of which was in their last meeting, a 1-1 draw in March when Caden Kelly scored.
Chorley finished fifth in the table last season and beat King’s Lynn in the play offs, but then lost to eventual winners Scunthorpe.
