They’re in.

Now all FC Edmonton has to do to maintain its newly-earned playoff position is keep on taking care of business in their own end.

Sunday’s 2-1 win over the New York Cosmos leapfrogged the Eddies past Tampa Bay and Fort Lauderdale into fourth place in the NASL combined standings with 34 points.

The road will be anything but easy, though.

Their next four game will be away until they return home to finish up a home-and-home series against the Jacksonville Armada to wrap up the season.

“I thought it was a fantastic team effort once again a good Cosmos team,” said head coach Colin Millar.

For this game, the Cosmos decided to sit four starters, who will likely be back in the lineup when the Eddies visit New York in two weeks’ time.

“This is not an Elephant and Castle, Pig and Whistle pub team,” said Millar. “This is a team that’s been very well assembled and there’s some truly world-class players on that team. Regardless of who didn’t show up there were no mugs on this New York Cosmos team.”

Miller has been emphasizing that this team would go nowhere until they learned how to take care of their own end. Good advice considering the challenge the Eddies face down the home stretch.

The tight defensive style that the team has developed serve them well on the prolonged road trip.

“We’ve now given ourselves a chance,” said Millar. “If we can acquit ourselves like that and be as clinical in front of the goal as we did today, we stand a chance. We can be dangerous away from home as well.”

After holding the upper hand in territorial play, Lance Laing and Daryl Fordyce scored two minutes apart late in the first half.

One shifty move past the lone defender after intercepting a Cosmos clearing pass left Laing wide open and he made no mistake, burying his chance.

“We worked hard, made this opportunity and took full advantage of it,” said Laing.

“Our defence is what’s given me motivation. We have been shutting out teams. Once we keep our defensive discipline, we can win the championship.”

Laing seemed genuinely surprised that he took over the team goals scoring lead with his eighth of the season.

“Oh, really?” said Laing, who’s battling through a hamstring injury. “I’m genuinely surprised. I’m no goal scorer. There are better goal scorers here than me. I won’t be there for long. Tomi (Ameobi) will be back. He’ll take over in about a week or two.”

Fordyce had a clear path after taking a touch pass from Dustin Corea, burying the insurance goal in the bottom right corner.

“It was a great ball from Dustin,” said Fordyce. “I just took a touch in front of me and that set it up.”

Fordyce has played on teams that have battled into a playoff position and understands maintaining it is the tough part.

“Back home, the two clubs I played for were always trying to win the league,” Fordyce said. “Once you got to the top of the league, that was the easy part. For us, the hard part is to maintain our position and fight for everything. We now have to fight for each other.

“The back line, if they continue to hold out, in terms of attacking, it helps. That was the case in the first half. We hit them on the counter-attack and that was the difference in the game today.

“We have to continue for 90 minutes and it was nail-biting stuff in the end.”

New York’s Marcos Senna scored on a penalty shot in the 57th minute when Albert Watson was called for a hand ball in the penalty area.

con.griwkowsky@sunmedia.ca