STEVE WATSON admitted his Darlington side were punished for their own errors as they suffered a 3-0 defeat at Chorley last night.

Quakers slipped to 18th position in the National League North table, four points clear of the relegation zone, as they suffered another difficult night at Victory Park.

It wasn’t quite the calamity of last season, when they conceded eight goals at Chorley, but it was another deserved defeat, with self-inflicted wounds proving costly.

Scott Barrow conceded possession in his own area as Chorley opened the scoring in the eighth minute, before Kallum Griffiths conceded a penalty midway through the second half to enable the hosts to double their lead. Chorley added a third goal to put the game to bed shortly after the hour mark.

“We knew it was going to be tough to come here,” said Watson. “They’re a very good side. They’re athletic, physical and they work hard.

“We knew it was going to be difficult to break them down, and that we’d have to be patient and stay in the game for as long as we could. But unfortunately, it’s hard enough to come here against a team without giving them a leg up and chances to score.

“We did that three times, basically, and that’s the disappointing thing. We’ve made errors that put the game to bed before we had a chance to open them up.”

Quakers have now won just one of their last six league games, a sequence they will be hoping to improve when they return to action at home to Warrington Town at the weekend.

Watson is, at least, starting to welcome some of his injured players back into the fold, even if he admits it will take them a game or two to get back up to full speed.

The loss of Cedric Main has proved especially damaging in the first few months of the season, and while striker played for the opening 66 minutes against Chorley before being replaced by Andrew Nelson, Watson admits he is still working his way back towards his peak.

“We’ve got people coming back from injury who are not quite there yet,” said the Quakers boss. “You could see that Cedric’s not quite there yet, but we need to push through that and get minutes into his legs. He’ll be better for that.”