— The Carolina RailHawks’ newly minted 12-game plan to guide them over the final third of their 2016 campaign hit an early snag Saturday night. Despite playing a hampered and hobbled Ottawa Fury team on the spacious surface of WakeMed Soccer Park, the RailHawks couldn’t crack the Fury’s defensive code, or goalkeeper Romuald Peiser, and ended up with a frustrating 0-0 draw.

Over three games this year, the RailHawks scored just one goal on Peiser over 270 minutes.

The Ottawa side that limped into Cary bore little resemblance to the one that visited in April, much less the NASL runner-up from last year. For cost-cutting purposes—or perhaps delayed recoupment of the “Voice of Fire” price tag paid by Ottawa’s National Gallery of Canada in 1990—the Fury have transferred six key contributors south of the border since December. Indeed, Jonny Steele, Paulo Junior, Idan Vered and Marcel de Jong, who started against Carolina in April, are no longer with the club.

Moreover, the Fury only dressed out 16 players against Carolina, forced to leave three ill players—Danny Mwanga, Ryan Williams and Jamar Dixon—back at the team hotel.

A ragged first half saw the RailHawks hold the majority of possession, but neither side put the other to the sword. What chances Carolina found were snuffed out by Peiser, including a 1-v-1 drive by Matt Fondy in 17th minute and another by fullback Steven Miller in the 31st. The latter collision culminated with Miller being removed with an apparent broken nose, despite Miller’s demonstrable protestations.

The scoring futility carried over through the second stanza. Both teams howled for penalties that weren’t whistled by referee Baboucarr Jallow. But desperately needing three points, Carolina found no answer for the Fury’s five-man back line and Peiser, who got in the Hawks’ heads on his way to three saves and his seventh clean sheet this year. It was the sort of defense that would earn Hope Solo a six-month ban. It nonetheless neutered the RailHawks on their home ground.

“That’s the way they set themselves up the last month or two,” said RailHawks manager Colin Clark. “They’re five at the back, four midfielders and one in the front. They sit in and look to hit you on the counter. They’ll look to take advantage of set plays and your mistakes. But they set out to keep clean sheets, and they did it again tonight.”

During the Fury’s preseason, manager Paul Dalglish proclaimed his intent to install a high-scoring offensive in Ottawa. Departures and injuries have forced an about-face, so Ottawa adopted a 5-4-1 formation that has netted the Fury five straight draws with just three goals both scored and allowed over that span. Ottawa is also winless in their last eight games.

“It’s not the way I want to see a team I’m involved with play, but it’s cards we’ve been dealt,” Dalglish said. “I have to put my ego to the side and do what’s best for Ottawa Fury, and what’s best for Ottawa Fury is to try and get as many points out of these games as possible. We’re so shorthanded. We’ve had 12 outfield players available for training and games. We’ve had academy kids sitting on the bench so we have enough to make three substitutions.”

Meanwhile, the RailHawks’ schizophrenic season continues. After making personnel and formation shifts last weekend, Carolina has kept two consecutive clean sheets, the first time that’s happened all year. But they’ve scored just one goal over those two home games, after netting eight goals during the previous four games.

“We’re creating the same amount of chances; the goals will come back,” Clarke said. “It would be one thing if we were sitting in and defending and not getting forward, or possessing the ball 70 percent of the time. We’re creating, and the goals will still come.”

With a loss by fourth-place Minnesota United tonight, Carolina failed to find three points at home to significantly narrow the gap for the final NASL playoff spot. Indeed, the RailHawks (8-6-8, 30 pts.) were leapfrogged by the Fort Lauderdale Strikers for fifth in the overall NASL table.

While Carolina has two games in hand on Minnesota and one on the Strikers, the RailHawks have two road games over the next seven days, visiting Miami FC on Wednesday and the Tampa Bay Rowdies next Saturday. The RailHawks return to Cary Sept. 24 to host FC Edmonton.

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

CAR: Sylvestre, Black, Tobin, Daly, Miller (Moses, 34’), Shipalane, Watson (Orlando, 87’), Marcelin, Albadawi, Fondy. Bravo (da Luz, 69’)

OTT: Peiser, Tissot (Olivera, 70’), Timbo (Obasi, 62’), Alves, Roberts, Edward, Rozeboom, Eustaquio, Bailey, Stewart, Gentile

GOALS

CAR: ---

OTT: ---

CAUTIONS

CAR: Moses, 52’

OTT: Gentile, 40’; Eustaquio, 90’; Olivera, 90 + 1’

EJECTIONS

CAR: ---

OTT: Oliver, 90 + 2’

ATTENDANCE: 4,094