The spring season began, and Jones was still on the sidelines. There were ups and downs, and the hope was ready that the Manchester United product would be ready to play at the beginning of the fall season. But, as the spring season wound down, it was clear that the knee wasn’t going to cooperate. The doctors told Jones he needed complete rest.

Miller said that, when healthy, Jones was the “best box-to-box midfielder” in NASL. He added that the injury is not forecast to be a career-ender, and that he hopes Jones can eventually make a full recovery.

From next Wednesday (May 4) to May 22, the Eddies will play six games. That works out to an average of a game every three days for the better part of a month. Beginning with next Wednesday’s date in Jacksonville, the Eddies will play four NASL matches and two Amway Canadian Championship matches in the span of a little less than three weeks.

“It was Ritchie Jones who reached out,” said Eckersley. “And I wanted something a bit different for my family. And my little brother has played in Canada, for Toronto, and he had nothing but good things to say about Canada.”

After an 0-3-0 road trip that made the final game of the regular season about pride and not the playoffs, the Eddies responded to put together one of the worst 90-plus minutes that we’ve seen in franchise history. Make no mistake, if not for the heroics of keeper Tyson Farago, Jacksonville would have had a deserved three-goal lead before Roberts’s injury-time effort.

Remember that the Eddies gave up a goal 12 seconds into the match in their NASL season-opening loss in Jacksonville. But Saturday’s game, with the Eddies badly needing a win to fan their fading playing hopes, might have surpassed that in infamy.

Miller said that the Eddies knew coming into the game that the Fury was one of the best, if not the best, counterattacking sides in NASL. So, he was disappointed that the Eddies were caught on two counters.

With the Cosmos already assured of a post-season spot because it won the spring-season title, the club prioritized resting players over putting out the best XI available. And that decision will be magnified because it influenced a game that was vital not only to the Eddies, but the other teams involved in the dogfight for fourth.

“I’d always said Edmonton felt like home,” said Ameobi, who is the joint top-scorer on the team with seven goals this season. “When they told me they wanted to extend my contract it wasn’t something I had to deliberate long over. I went home, talked to my family, prayed about it, and I felt like this was the place I was meant to be.”

“But we’ve created a monster here, in terms of players getting call-ups to their national teams. It’s a situation we’ve never had to deal with before this season, but it’s also an honour for the club.”