CARY, N.C.— After going 0-for-August, the Carolina RailHawks snapped their four-match losing skid and earned their first victory since July 18 with a 2-0 win over the Atlanta Silverbacks in a rare Friday fixture at WakeMed Soccer Park.

The result was the RailHawks’ first clean sheet since the May 30 win at the Jacksonville Armada. Heck, it’s the first time Carolina hasn’t surrendered three goals in a game since August 1.

In other words, it was a much-needed three points for a desperate team.

“We deserved the result,” said RailHawks manager Colin Clarke. “But we deserved the result last week. We probably deserved a result of some kind here two weeks ago. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot and giving up bad goals. I thought tonight we started really bright and well. Everyone looked lively.”

The RailHawks thoroughly dominated the opening half, and their pluck produced two goals. In the 24th minute, Nazmi Albadawi intercepted a Silverbacks pass and maneuvered into space atop the penalty arc.. The RailHawks midfielder uncorked a blast from 25 yards out that sail over Silverbacks goalkeeper CJ Cochran before ricocheting off the underside of the crossbar and landing across the goal line.

Albadawi, who didn’t net his first goal of the season until last weekend at the New York Cosmos, has now scored three goals in two matches. He says his recent scoring run comes as he’s finally finding his health.

“In the beginning of the season I couldn’t really hit the ball with the laces because of my ankle injury,” Albadawi said. “So it took a while to get that strength back in my ankle completely so I could hit the ball with my laces.”

Albadawi’s manager has a different perspective on the player’s return to form.

“Nazmi sometimes just has to stop worrying and go out and enjoy his football,” Clarke says. “When he does that, you can see he has great feet and ability. He can score goals, and he just let not scoring get to him a little bit.”

Four minutes later, Carolina doubled their advantage. A RailHawks free kick found the head of Austen King charging far post. King’s header back across the face of goal slipped between Cochran and Carolina striker Nacho Novo before ending up at the grateful boot of defender Connor Tobin, who gladly poked in the loose sphere for a 2-0 lead.

The RailHawks made a rare, non-injury substitution before halftime. After Chris Nurse earned a booking and at least another warning from referee Mark Kadlecik, RailHawks manager Colin Clarke took Nurse off for Mark Anderson in the 39th minute. It was the sort of move made by a team that had lost four consecutive matches, two of them marred by RailHawks being sent off early.

“Chris went in on a tackle early on and got a yellow card, which some referees could have gone red,” Clarke said. “Then he goes in on another bad tackle that could have resulted in a second yellow. The referee did a great job of not producing the yellow, talking to the player and keeping him on the field. But I just thought I can’t take a chance of him doing something that’s going to reduce us to 10 men when we’re in the control of this game … I know [Chris] is aggressive, he’s that type of player. But you can only go so far.”

While the second half played to a stalemate, the RailHawks kept the vast majority of possession against a Silverbacks side running a 3-5-2 formation that mustered only three shots the entire match.

Despite their recent spate of poor play, the RailHawks (6-7-8, 25 pts.) creep within two points of the NASL’s final playoff spot, pending the outcome of the remainder of league action this Labor Day weekend. Carolina, which has nine games left in their 2015 regular season, now embark on a three-game road trip that begins next Wednesday at the San Antonio Scorpions. The RailHawks next return to Cary on September 26 to host the Ottawa Fury.

BOX SCORE:

LINEUPS

CAR: Fitzgerald; Wagner, King, Tobin (C), Low (Coleman, 90’); Hlavaty, Nurse (Anderson, 39’); Shipalane, Albadawi, da Luz; Novo

ATL: Cochran; McKenzie, Mensing (C), A. Bangura (Hughes, 10’); Kimura, Reed, Paulo, Porter (Okafor, 66’), Burgos; Pedro Mendes (Bangura, 57’), Chavez.

GOALS

CAR: Albadawi, 24’ (unassisted), Tobin, 28’ (King)

ATL: --

CAUTIONS

CAR: Nurse (16’)

ATL: Okafor (77’)

EJECTIONS

CAR: --

ATL: --

ATTENDANCE: 4,021