On the way the match finished:
“At the end, we looked pinned in and looked really tired, to be honest. I think it’s something that we’ve spoken about in trying to be intentional about our energy and I think overall, for us, it was a little bit flat. I thought they came into it in the second half and we started to sit deep and couldn’t really get out. We tried to defend the lead and then got caught. From their standpoint, it’s a good goal but from our standpoint, it’s not a great goal to concede. It’s very disappointing to have the lead and then lose it in the last few minutes again. I’m really disappointed for the lads.”
On NCFC’s quick start:
“When you look at how the game went, [North Carolina FC] started brightly and caused us some problems. We started to come back into it and then I thought in probably the last 10-15 minutes of the first half we actually had some good opportunities. The goal that was disallowed for offside I’ll need to see again, I’m not sure whether it was or it wasn’t. But I thought at the end of the first half we actually had some energy and had some movement that looked as if we looked more like ourselves. We caused them a lot of problems and got some good shots on goal. Second half we started the period like that again but in the last 20 minutes I thought it was all them. We were just trying to hang on and looked really tired and dead in our feet, to be honest with you.”
On Oscar Jimenez’s delivery for the goal:
“It’s fantastic delivery from Oscar [Jimenez]—his quality was really good. I think when you look at Paco [Craig] attacking the ball, it was good from him to get his head on it. Oscar has tremendous delivery and Paco has been doing a really good job of trying to attack the ball and be intentional. From that standpoint, it was pleasing. It’s just that, for the lads, it’s very disappointing when you concede a goal like that again late and you go from an opportunity of having three points to ending up with one. We just need to manage that a little bit better.”
On Ilija Ilic’s form:
“He’s been fantastic. It was a great finish from Illy and he had a great shot in the first half as well where the ‘keeper made a decent save. I think all in all, when you look at his performance, his character was great, his attitude and his work ethic as well. We’re really pleased for Illy. He’s been working exceptionally hard and he’s having a phenomenal season for us.”
On the most important thing for his side with a quick turnaround on Wednesday:
“We need to try and get some energy back. We had a massive game against Nashville [SC] on Wednesday in the Open Cup and again, I think we just need to be coming off those Open Cup games without the flatness on a Saturday. We need to try and rid ourselves of that. I think that’s something we need to be better at. It’s fantastic that we’ve had the Open Cup run, but we don’t want that to be the priority. We need to make sure we’re focusing on both [Open Cup and USL regular season]. That’s something the players deserve enormous credit for, the way they’ve been able to keep going and keep going. It’s just disappointing when you get that in the last couple of minutes when we concede like that.”
