Without the stellar play of the Carolina keeper, the RailHawks would have lost to FC Edmonton by a more lopsided scoreline than Sunday’s 3-0 result at Clarke Field. Make no mistake; a 3-0 loss was a scoreline that flattered the visitors, who have become all too used to hidings on the Clarke turf.

This season, Carolina has played the Eddies three times, lost all three, and given up 12 goals. To put it in perspective, the Eddies have 30 total goals this season. That means 40 per cent of the Eddies' goals have come against Carolina — in just 270 minutes of football.

After a controversial penalty call against Edson Edward allowed the RailHawks to tie the game 2-2 on a Zack Schilwaki spot kick, the Eddies didn’t accept that things weren’t simply going to go their way. Instead, they pressed the RailHawks late into the game and into stoppage time.

The Eddies scored six on Sunday. Daryl Fordyce scored 34 seconds into the match, the fastest goal from the start of a game so far this NASL season, and the Eddies were on their way to a 6-1 hiding of the Carolina RailHawks.

Daryl Fordyce scored twice, pacing the Eddies to a 2-1 win over the Carolina RailHawks. The big winners out of the weekend? The New York Cosmos. With Carolina’s loss, the gap between the Cosmos and the RailHawks (tied for second place) is now seven points.

“It was a catalogue of disasters, it was a shocking trip,” FCE coach Colin Miller said of the trip “Finally, the rain delay set it right up for us to have the kind of first half we did. But I don’t want to make excuses, we set high standards at this club.

“It was a lot harder to come back than I thought,” admitted Hamilton, who had 30 orange-clad family and friends at Clarke Stadium cheering him on. “There was a lot of emotion at the start of the game. I didn’t think I played very well.”

On Saturday, it was another two goalposts off of clear scoring chances, and FCE and its supporters can only wonder what could have been, as the Carolina RailHawks opened their renovated new home park with a 2-1 win over the Eddies.

But, as we get ready for this weekend’s kickoff to the NASL spring season, the Rowdies and MUFC are the clear favourites to top the table.

“You get to a point in the game where we score, we have taken the lead, we are dominating possession,” said Porter. “And then it was like we just dropped. And the game just changed. And then they get the goals, and the winner came so late, there was no chance for us to come back.”