“I have to say I am fairly disappointed in the Jamaican federation. Here is a player [Laing] who they take all the way to Korea for a friendly, but they know he’s suspended for the next four [World Cup qualifying] matches. And they know this will have a huge impact on his club. They have not shown any respect to the club at all. The Canadian association asked if Mallan would be available for the most recent camp [Tuesday friendly with Ghana] and they were very understanding when I said we needed him because it’s an important time for the club. Of course, that was before Mallan got injured. But it shows the difference in class between the two federations. I’m not saying Lance Laing is such a great player that we can’t play without him; no player is that good. But, the Jamaican federation needs to respect the spirit of the game.”

“It was as poor a half as I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” FCE Coach Colin Miller said of the Eddies’ first 45 minutes against the RailHawks.

“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.”

For Canadians Dwayne De Rosario and Paul Hamilton, Wednesday’s fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup saw them make important contributions as their clubs survived.

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.

Neither the Carolina or FC Edmonton put on defensive clinics in a 2-2 draw which saw Eddie Kyle Porter trade braces with the RailHawks’ Nick Zimmerman.

“We can’t worry about the schedules of the other teams or the standings,” said FCE keeper Lance Parker.

“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.”

After a disheartening 2-0 loss on the road to the Carolina RailHawks on Saturday, the parallels between the Eddies and the Impact of 2011 are more and more evident.