FOXBORO -- Jay Heaps was pretty straightforward to his team. It's been pretty. But for three straight games, it's led to a loss.
The New England Revolution didn't play their best or most fundamentally sound game of the season on Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium, but they got the result they've been looking for since March: a win.
The Revs lost all three of their games in the month of April, but pulled out a 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids on Wednesday, snapping that three-game losing skid.
"It certainly wasn't our best game, from the standpoint of how we played," said Revolution coach Heaps after the game. "But I really was excited about, was the resolve we showed. And we showed that, going down a goal, we didn't hang our heads. We fought back. And I asked a lot out of the guys tonight, and each one of them stepped up."
New England fell behind 1-0 in the 21st minute on a header by Jaime Castrillon off a corner kick. But the Revs battled back and got goals from Saer Sene in the 28th minute, and Fernando Cardenas in the 39th minute, and held that lead the rest of the way.
What made the difference for the Revolution was their collective defense and their toughness that they somehow lost over the previous three games.
"We were a unit out there," said Heaps. "And unfortunately, in the three losses, if you went back, we actually probably played more technically sound. But we didn't defend as a unit. And tonight, that was something that we really asked our guys to do. We gave up a set piece, but other than that, there wasn't a ton of things where they broke us down and we were giving away goals.
"It was really about, forget about all the pretty play," said Heaps. "We needed to make sure we're tough. And that's what we went out and did."