STEVE Watson has urged his Darlington players not to dwell on the disappointment of their home defeat to Buxton.

Quakers lost for just the second time at Blackwell Meadows this season when they went down 1-0 to their National League North play-off rivals on Tuesday night.

Luke Brennan's early penalty was enough to lift Buxton above Darlington into eighth place, with Quakers dropping to ninth.

Watson was disappointed but wants his players to quickly put the setback behind them.

"I said that to the boys, be disappointed but there's a lot of football to be played and loads of twists and turns left," said Darlington's boss.

"We've proved on our day we can be a match for anybody, it's getting that consistency.

"It's almost like a shootout now. There's a load of teams that can get to where they want to be. Unfortunately the teams at the top are stretching it a a bit but there's probably going to be two or three places up for grabs and as long as we're in the hunt and we're in with a chance we'll keep going."

Just seven points separate Kidderminster in third and Darlington in ninth, though Quakers now have a week and a half to rest and recover before their next league game at home to lowly Marine a week on Saturday.

Cedric Main will be back for that game after missing the Buxton defeat, with Quakers lacking a cutting edge in front of goal in the striker's absence in midweek.

Watson said: "It was disappointing. The effort was there, we had plenty of the ball and got into good areas but just lacked that bit of real quality.

"In fairness to them, we've had nights where we've won 1-0 and defended the box brilliantly and I think that's how they'll look at it.

We just lacked that killer instinct.

"We threw everything at it. We huffed and puffed but didn't work their keeper enough. I think we have to put it down to one of those nights, we haven't had many."

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Darlington will this week hold talks with Sunderland and Kidderminster to determine what happens next with Caden Kelly and Jack Lambert, who are approaching the end of their loan deals with Quakers.

Watson said: "We'll talk to the players and the agents and clubs about before we say anything on that.

"Caden found the league quite tough at the start but got better and better. He proved tonight he has real quality. He improved as it went on.

"Jack hasn't played as much football as he'd have wanted before he came here and he came not 100 per cent match fit.

"He's a very good footballer and looks after the ball really well. But it's not all down to us. Sunderland might want to do something different with Caden and we haven't spoken to Kidderminster yet. We'll have a chat with them."