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.

But, the Eddies got two second-half goals in the space of 93 seconds, then held on to beat the Silverbacks by a 2-1 count. The win saw FC Edmonton spring off the league basement, ahead of the Silverbacks.

The Eddies played in front of their biggest crowd at Clarke Stadium so far this season, with 2,521 fans shoehorned into the bleachers and standing around the sidelines. But the crowd went home disappointed as the Eddies slumped to a 2-1 defeat to the previously undefeated Silverbacks.

A last-gasp header from substitute Paul Craig has guaranteed FC Edmonton a trip to the NASL playoffs. Craig scored at the death, heading home a corner from Shaun Saiko to give the Eddies a 2-1 win over the last-place Atlanta Silverbacks, who were reduced to 10 men at the half-hour mark.

Impact coach and technical director Nick De Santis said after practice yesterday that he wanted to see more initiative on the part of his men, particularly in the visiting Atlanta Silverbacks’ third of the field. He got what he wanted from Eduardo Sebrango who scored two on the afternoon with the second allowing the Impact to snatch a tie from the jaws of defeat and taking him to the century mark for his career.

But the Impact looked nothing like the team that beat FC Edmonton Saturday, gifting two first-half goals to the worst offence in the league. Atlanta’s 2-1 win at home allowed the club to earn its first NASL win of 2011, and asked many more questions of an Impact team that has looked unstoppable in its two wins over FC Edmonton this season, and awful against the rest of the league.