Head Coach Adrian Heath
On if there’s anything sweeter than a 1-0 road win…
“No, especially when you score virtually the last kick of the game, it’s always nice. But, it’s one of them feelings that I don’t think there’s anything better in football when you’ve put all that hard work in, everything’s worked to plan and then eventually you go and get a goal in the last second. So no, winning on the road one-nil is a perfect result for most coaches.”
On his approach to this week after a midweek match and game at the weekend…
“We mixed it up a little bit on Tuesday. I think it was only Boxy [Michael Boxall] who played 90 [minutes], who’s been regular for us. He probably didn’t thank me for that. But, we’ve tried to give everybody a rest while still trying to be competitive in the games. Our last two league, regular season games have been very, very good. I thought we were really good against the [Houston] Dynamo, thought we were excellent in Portland. Let’s see if we can carry that on this weekend.”
On approaching the match against Real Salt Lake on Saturday…
“We have to play well. We have to do what we’re good at, do it better than we’ve been doing, consistently. I do feel, the last two weeks, there’s been a marked improvement in the way that we move the ball, the way that we’ve switched the ball from side to side, the way we’ve penetrated- we need to do all of that again. And I think if we do, we give ourselves a chance, but I know that they’re going to come in here and they’re going to be really well disciplined, as they always do. They always hang around- as I said earlier, it’s like having a toothache… it doesn’t go away. They just stay there and if you don’t take them opportunities when they come, they have enough talent to make you pay for that.”
On the defensive performances through the last couple of matches…
“I don’t think it’s just the back four. I think it’s the six in front of them who have bee really disciplined. The modern game is it’s not a back four and then you get on with it. It’s 10 defending, it’s 10 attacking, fullbacks running in when you’ve got the ball, wide guys jumping, getting in front of the fullbacks to defend the goal. The collective has been very, very good. Everybody’s been disciplined, everybody’s been doing their job, and if we do that, we’ll give ourselves a chance this weekend.”
On dealing with the key attacking pieces of Real Salt Lake…
“They’ve got some talent. I’m a huge admirer of [Damir] Kreilach wherever he seems to play. He always seems to have an influence on the game, always seems to do well against us anyway. And [Jefferson] Savarino’s come back now who’s very quick. The young Colombian kid [Andres Gomez] they’ve taken is excellent, quick on the counterattack. They’ve got a lot of threats. It’s not going to be easy for this weekend. As I say most weekends, we’re going to have to play to be able to win the game.”
On his expectations for the atmosphere and fans at home…
“Atmosphere’s always great at the stadium. They never let us down. As I say to the players, let’s give them something to get into the game with and if we do that, we always give ourselves a chance at home.”
Goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair
On the shutout win at Portland…
“We’ve had some tough times there in the past so to be able to get our fifth clean sheet of the season with as many as we had last season. To get it so early on this season is definitely nice, and we look to get many more.”
On the defensive effort to maintain the Portland attack…
“We’ve done a great job team defending this year whether its been getting in our shape, last stitch tackles- I think back to Hassani’s [Dotson] in the first half, Kemar [Lawrence] had a couple in the second half as well. And just the desire to limit the amount of shots on goals.”
On a busy stretch of games and how to manage them…
“From a player’s standpoint, it’s just doing what you can to do to make sure your body is ready come game day. Sometimes you’re not going to be 100% but to have the mentality that you can go out there and you can still perform and help the team and help us get the three points. The rest comes down to the coaches and who they decide to put in the lineup.”
On keeping the momentum after two league wins, including the first victory at home last week…
“It’s been no secret that we haven’t had the best home record, but we know the support with our fans in our stadium that we can turn that around, and I think we’ve done a good job on the road but it’s about starting to capitalize on those home games. There’s a big one coming up on Saturday that we’re going to be looking to get three points and continue the streak in the league.”
On the expectations for the match against Real Salt Lake on Saturday…
“Them winning last night against Colorado- they’re going to be on the highs of that, of moving on the in [U.S.] Open Cup, but we know that when we play at home, we can get a result against anyone in the league. We got that joy of hearing “Wonderwall” last week so to be able to push for that and to make that a theme for all of our home games moving forward.”
