Don’t mention the score: FCE doesn’t speak of six-goal outburst against Carolina

Colin Miller PHOTO: TONY LEWIS/FC EDMONTON

FCE’s Daryl Fordyce had a field day last time the Eddies met Carolina; but injury will prevent him from making the trip this weekend.[/caption]

It was the final day of the NASL spring season, and FC Edmonton’s offence erupted on a Carolina RailHawks team that had more holes in it than Sharknado’s plot. The Eddies got a 6-1 win; it just might have been the most lopsided triumph in FCE franchise history.

So, when the two teams meet this weekend in North Carolina, are the Eddies looking back to the 6-1 win for inspiration? Absolutely not, says coach Colin Miller. He understands that a 6-1 result is a “freak result in professional football.”

And, on Saturday, the RailHawks will be at home, where they are usually a far different team than the one that travels. You can’t find a more Jekyll-and-Hyde team in NASL than the Carolina RailHawks, when it comes to home and road success. Five of their six wins (combined spring and fall) have come at home. When they are on the golf-green surface in Cary, N.C., there is no comparing them to the team that gets on the airplane.

“We don’t even bring it (the 6-1 game) up,” said Miller. “We have got to be prepared to face a Carolina team that is much better at home, even though recent results have shown they are not invincible at home.”

Carolina was beaten at home by Tampa Bay last week and the Indy Eleven earlier in the fall season.

“Knowing (Carolina coach) Colin Clarke like I do, I am sure there were some bad words said after that (6-1) game,” Miller said. “I know that I would have said some bad words if my team had given up six goals.”

The Eddies will fly to North Carolina tomorrow (via Minneapolis) without midfielder Milton Blanco, who hurt his MCL in last Wednesday’s draw against the New York Cosmos. He will also be without FCE’s leading scorer, Daryl Fordyce, who has tendinitis in the heel. Fordyce had been trying to play through the pain but the decision has been made to give the Northern Irish forward a rest.

FCE captain Albert Watson remembers the last time the teams met in North Carolina, when massive thunderstorms delayed the game.

“There were torrential floods, but we came out flat in that came and lost,” he says. “And, that 6-1 game, we could have won that 10-1, to be honest. We had that many chances. But, obviously, it will be a different game, as they are a different team when they play at home.”

The Eddies enter the weekend trailing fourth-place Fort Lauderdale by eight points in the NASL overall standings. Fort Lauderdale currently holds down the final playoff spot.