"I think it is very difficult in the circumstances to be happy to be honest," said NEC Harlequins Chief Executive Mark Evans, still visibly shaken by events at the club in the past few days.

"Obviously very pleased with the win. I thought we played with a lot of heart and a lot of spirit and passion, but I don't think we played particularly well."

"I thought at times we looked like a side that had lost three games on the bounce, which is to be expected. However, I thought that we got our driving game going for the first time this season, and that made a big difference."

"We scored three tries, perhaps a little fortunate with the interception, but I can't remember how many times that has happened to us this season, but that was a 14-point turn around."

"I had just said to the two forward replacements that I put on, "whatever we get out of this, whether it is seven or three you are going on," and we got seven out of it, with a fantastic kick from David (Slemen) from the touchline. Really pleased but it has been a strange day."

After conceding ten tries in their opening three games, Quins needed to improve on their defensive pattern, and whilst not perfect by any means, they did restrict their visitors, who grabbed four in last weeks win over Saracens, to just one try late in the game.

"London Irish always pose you a particular set of problems by the way that they play and I thought that defensively first half we weren't very good. There were bits of our defence pattern that I was not very happy with but they could not exploit it."

"We were much better after half-time but it was not so much a question of tackling, it was more where your players are positioned in certain circumstances and I thought Ace Tiatia's defensive positioning was marvellous."

"I thought the whole back row had one of their best games of the year, with Tony Diprose and Pat Sanderson turning over a shed load of ball."

"We turned over a lot of ball ourselves last week, although the only week that I was unhappy with in the tackle area was week one against Gloucester where I felt we just weren't competitive in the tackle area."

"We were pretty competitive at Welford Road but unfortunately our set-piece fell apart so that does make it a bit tricky then."

"I thought last week we were pretty good as were Leeds, but we were not good at carrying the ball in when we had it but I was quite pleased with our tackle area stuff defensively last week and again today."

"That's three out of four now and three in a row, and we had a problem and we've fixed it pretty quickly."