New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps

We’re disappointed in the overall performance of the game. I thought we just didn’t start the game with that bright energy and that bright spark that we should have. Took us a little too long to get into the game and when we did I thought we were OK. Unfortunately, I thought we were playing against a lot of different factors tonight.

I think that it was by design that is was a very physical match, guys were going to be on the ground and we have to learn to be a little bit stronger, little better. We sit in technical meetings all the time and we just want to play, we just want to play. Unfortunately it’s hard sometimes but we weren’t good enough. It’s on us, the onus is on us. We’ve got to be stronger, and we’ve got to be better.”

I think that we came into the game. I think we prepared well, from the start we wanted to play … we didn’t react well. The focus was there, we just didn’t react well and that’s the problem. We have to be a little bit better in the reaction and be stronger in our reaction.

I was disappointed (it took Houston’s goal to have some life). I think we were all disappointed in that we gave up a goal at home, followed up to get back into it and gave up another one. They were deep range shots and we did everything right on certain things at that point. But overall, we didn’t play well enough when we had the chance.

I think Diego (Fagundez) had a pretty good chance. He was probably a little bit off in his touch in the first half but he was clear through … He set up our goal. But it wasn’t that they were on him; I think he didn’t have his best game. I think that happens too, the last two matches he just hasn’t found the ball. When he gets the ball, he just hasn’t found, reacting quick enough to the play. But in terms of overall production, I thought he could have had a goal or assist.

That’s how we like to play (like we did in th second half). Unfortunately we only had one half of it. I think we wished he had done a little bit better at the beginning. Like we said, the idea was to prepare for an opportunity to play, an opportunity to go after it. It was really physical really early. Lee Nguyen got whacked hard two or three times by Ricardo Clark. You can only play; you need a little help once in a while. You need the man in the middle to say, ‘guys, we are going to play today’. When that doesn’t happen, we need a reaction and we didn’t get it from ourselves. That’s what disappoints me. There are matches where for whatever reason, the tide is going against you, the teams against you, and they are hitting you to the ground, the referee is in a whole another world, missing some penalty kick calls, you aren’t given out yellow cards when you should and letting the game get physical. Well, then it’s on us to fix it, on us to make the reaction in the right direction and we didn’t do that tonight. It’s all on us. Credit Houston, because I thought they came out with a great game plan. But we should have been better once we realized what they were doing.

New England Revolution defender Chris Tierney

I’m not too sure there was much that Bobby (Shuttleworth) could do (on Houston’s second goal). (Adam) Moffat is one of the best strikers in the league. The first one was a great strike and there wasn’t much we could do about the second one. I’ll take the blame there – I went to close out and I thought I had my angles right and it nipped slightly off my shin and went by. Obviously, Bobby’s going to try to get it and that’s just bad luck that it hits off the post and goes in.

It was tough. They obviously had a game plan and that was to disrupt us at midfield and put us under pressure. It was tough to deal with. Credit to them, they are a physical team and I don’t think we dealt with that as well as we could have, but I thought we had some decent times in the game where we put some things together. Overall, I’m not sure we were good enough to take three.

I think the game just opened up (in the second half), for both teams. We knew we wanted three points so we had to push the numbers forward and it was a little more back and forth - I think we left some holes.

We have to put this one behind us. It was a big game and we wish we won, but if we go on the road and get the results, we’re right back in the mix. We’re just passed the halfway point of our season here and we still don’t feel like we’re playing at our full potential, so we just have to play the way we know we’re capable of. I’m confident that we’ll be in a good position come season’s end.

We have a lot more depth this year which is going to help us. For example, this week when we have a tough midweek game in Colorado, there are more guys and competition throughout the squad, so those guys can step-up and bring some energy and fresh legs. We all need to stay focused and realize that it is a long season and there are plenty of games left to be played. On the whole, we’re still in a decent spot and are right in the mix and a couple good wins puts us right back in there.

Games on the road are games on the road. Not having taken three here, Colorado is a tough game. Our mindset is the same, whether we are home or away: if we play to our full potential we will win games. We’re focused on ourselves and getting us back to playing at 100 percent and if we do that and stay focused then we will be in a good spot.

New England Revolution goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth

Yeah (the ball) pops out and I can’t see the ball, I can’t see him, trying to find where it is. I don’t see it until it is maybe right over the top of my head. So I am just trying to react as fast as possible. I got my fingertips on it but not enough to put it over.

The second one was – both of them were good strikes – he does really well. Especially the first one with his left foot. So credit to him. The second one he smashes it and I am just landing from trying to stretch out to tip it around the post and it just hits my back and goes right in.

You are not going to see balls struck like that too many times like that first one. So before that they didn’t have any chances at all, a couple of half chances. We did well to limit their chances, so sometimes you just got to tip your hat. He smashed it in. There is not really much you can say other than that.

Yeah, I don’t think you are going to see two goals like that very often. That first one is probably most likely be up for goal of the year at the end of the season. Second one is coming off the post, hitting me in the back. That has never happened to me before. I think it is unlucky. Like you said, if those are the chances that we are giving up, there is something to be said for that. But obviously we still lost the game so it is not good enough, from everyone, myself included.

Yeah I thought we played better stuff in the second half. First half was just a little slow out of us. We were just giving away possession too easily. I was choosing to play the ball long too often. By the second half we did a lot better job of keeping possession. Playing some better stuff on the ground.

Yeah, obviously we talked all week, this was a huge game for us. We were trying to jump them in the table. This one stings for sure, we have to get on to the next one. We have a game Wednesday and Saturday. This is a huge trip for us. We’ve got to try to go on the road and get points. We’ve got to let it sting for the rest of the night and then push onwards.

Houston Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear

It was a little bit back and forth there in the second half. Obviously Adam (Moffat) scores a great goal and then they pull back. We got a little bit of fortune with Adam’s second goal, but still a good hit. The red card is a red card and just trying to kill the game off. It was a great three points for us.

It’s always the same. No matter who you play, there are always physical players on both teams. I think with the field being hard as it is, it makes the ball bounce up a little bit and therefore, there’s a little bit more confrontation. But it’s just the way the game is played.

can’t just run around and just be tough, but you have to make sure you’re involved in the game and the physical aspect. They have good players. They have good movement and they can play the little slide passes. You have to make sure you get around them and get close to the ball so they can’t do that. I thought in the first half we were really good for second balls, won those, and the second half was just trading goals. Lucky for us, ours was the one that won it.

(Adam Moffat’s) been good for a goal. He hasn’t hit one of those for a while so it was a fantastic hit and I thought overall, his game was good. It was a good night for him.

I don’t think there was a ton on either side to be honest. We did flood the midfield a little bit and try and cut off the supply to (Lee) Nguyen and (Kelyn) Rowe, who are very influential players for them and then tried to break. We did okay. They still got their moments; they still got their looks and some things. I think in the end, we all seemed to get a leg or a toe in the way, which was good for us.

The (international duty) guys are gone. The guys are playing and doing well for us. Brad’s (Davis) not here and Omar (Cummings) pulled out yesterday, so it’s unfortunate that that happens, but it’s the reason you try and build a strong squad, for moments like this and days like this. Cam (Weaver) gave us a great 88 minutes tonight. So I think the whole group has been contributing to this season and good for us, we got two in a row, which is great.

You just want to win games. You don’t go ‘hey, we’re in a slump, let’s win two in a row.’ You just step on the field and try to win every game. Even though they’re on a little winless streak, we’re still trying to win games. I think if you look at it, the result was important tonight for a couple reasons. New England’s right behind us. If they win the game, obviously we flip flop spots in the conference. Then you look up above us and New York’s won and Philadelphia won last night and I think Kansas City’s winning right now. You have to try and keep pace and these conference games are important for two of those reasons.

Houston Dynamo forward Cam Weaver

We’re on the road, so we knew it was going to be a battle. We wanted to come out and be physical and kind of dictate the game - that was our game plan. I thought we did that well, and we’re going away with a win, so we’re happy.

I think (Adam Moffat) closed his eyes when he shot that. No, we know Adam can hit those. We’ve seen it before. It’s great that he was able to step up in the moment, and get those two goals, and get us the victory. But it’s not surprising, because we see it all the time. He’s done it before, and I’m sure he’ll do it again.

That’s huge. I think other teams that were chasing and battling for those playoff spots have also been winning, so we have to pick up points and we got to try to keep climbing as high as we can.

Houston Dynamo midfielder Adam Moffat

It came out from that corner kick and Kofi (Sarkodie) and I kind of switched at the start. I started out on the right, he started on the left hand side. It came out and I thought maybe take a touch here and then it took a little bit longer to come down, so I just hit it and fortunately for me I caught it well. I think it went through and the goalie saw it late. I was delighted with that.

I think the game we lost to (New England) a few weeks ago, we were flat, we weren’t winning enough challenges, we let them play. They’re a good team and they’ve got a lot of good players. If you give them time and space, they’ll create opportunities. We thought we’d come out and impose ourselves a little bit physically and we got the win, so we’re happy with that.

I got a little bit fired up in the first half. Every player is different. Some guys can take a challenge, some guys don’t. That’s the way it is. It’s kind of on yourself to keep your composure. But you know, you got to keep going. If there is a challenge there you got to go in and win it. To be fair, we’re not going out there and trying to hurt people. We’re just trying to get there and impose ourselves. We’re trying to win challenges and let them know they’re not going to have it easy. It was good to get a result.

Once they scored, I thought we still had come out in the second half and had done well. I thought we were still going to get a goal. I thought we were getting in some good spots and that was kind of on for me tonight, just that ball in the middle there. I had enough time to take a touch and struck it well. It was just unlucky on the goalkeeper when it bounces back and hits him in the back, there’s nothing he can do about that. After that, I was a little surprised it went in, but I’ll take it for sure. You know, when you shoot, good things happen.

(Getting back-to-back conference wins is) big, especially against a team that coming into this game was two points behind us and a team that’s getting some confidence. It was good to separate ourselves a little bit – five points now. It was a bad run we were on for a while there, seven games without wins, so getting two wins back to back is great and a little bit of time off before our next game, which is at home, so we’ll prepare. We have an exhibition game in that time and hopefully we’ll come out and get a good run going here like at the start of the year.