The hosts scored three goals inside the opening 25 minutes, which gave Dale a mountain to climb.
“We can’t start games of football like we started today,” commented Watson.
“The goals against are so soft. We allow people to run through us. We spoke all week about how athletic they are and how good they are in those moments.
“We’re out of the game after 15 minutes because of the scoreboard. We changed the shape to try and get more bodies behind the ball because I think we needed them, then we changed personnel at half-time to try and effect the game as much as we possibly could.
“We had a lot of meetings this week, and the boys spoke about how much they wanted to react.
“We were ready to put the wrongs of last weekend right, and I thought we were going to start the game really well, but we don’t get contact and don’t mark properly for their first goal.
“It’s such a simple goal to concede. We don’t get goals like that; Daj [Dajaune Brown] had one in the first half when he gets through, and their guy gets across and defends it unbelievably well.
“It’s the opposite of ourselves; we’re allowing players to run into our box. It’s almost like it puts us in a state of shock.
“We’ve got a lot of young players on the pitch, and they’re on a real learning curve at the minute, which they’re finding tough.”
Watch the full post-match interview with Watson via our official YouTube channel below.
