New England head coach Steve Nicol
“You basically lose a game in the space of 10 minutes giving the ball away and not defending properly. And when you’re going three-nil down, it’s a long way back.”
“We want to do well, but to have everyone here in these conditions, travel back and then have to play again Saturday is too much so we had to make changes (to the lineup).”
“It was a small field, and with the weather, possession of the ball was difficult. We started off trying to play the wrong game. We should have been hitting the front guy instead of trying to play it through the middle of the park where it was all congested.”
New England midfielder Pat Phelan
“We were down a man – they played three in the middle – the field was very narrow, very short, kind of like their old home field, and you couldn’t play through the middle. They had that extra guy so they could play through the middle. But every time we tried to do it, we lost the ball and we were on our heels playing defense. We tried to get the ball wide, and that was pretty much the only time we had success was when we did get the ball wide.”
“The entire trip, nothing has been suited to our success and how we want to play. It’s tough to show up and play in these conditions, but at the end of the day, both teams have to do it. And they came out and got the goals early, and they had a big crowd behind them for their first home game, so that was a tough condition to play in.”
“A lot of the younger players don’t know that when stuff like (going 3-0 down early) happens, you have to get on yourself, and not get on each other. You can’t wait for someone to tell you to pick it up. But that’s a learning experience for a lot of these guys. You’ve got to put it behind you and you have to start from scratch for every play. You can’t dwell on mistakes. It’s a tough situation to be in, but for everyone on the field, we all want to play well. For a lot of these guys, with the exception of reserve games, this is the only time they’ll get on the field this year. I know it’s difficult and a pressure-filled situation to come in to, but it’s disheartening to come out with a result like that. But it’s back to the field and you have to put it behind you, learn from your mistakes and move on.”
New England Goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth
“We had a tough travel out here and the weather wasn’t cooperating with us and then obviously it was cold and raining and it wasn’t ideal. We have to try to push through that and get a result, but didn’t.”
On what he’s telling his players at 3-0 down
“We don’t want it to get any worse, so we just try to do whatever we can to not let anything else pass us. And just try to push forward to put one in the net.”
