When Carl Haworth heard a professional soccer team was coming to Ottawa, he showed up in the capital a year early to get noticed.

Turns out that advance planning was a pretty good call by the player who would become Fury FC's first-ever Canadian signing.

The 25-year-old forward is now back for his second season with the North American Soccer League club, but this training camp couldn't be more different than Haworth's first.

Last year, the England-born, Canada-raised graduate of Niagara University is heading into his second professional season as one of the front-runners to start at the right forward position.

It's a far cry from last year when Haworth was a rookie coming over from Ottawa's PDL team, a relative unknown to the average soccer fan who quickly impressed with his speed and work ethic.

And yet it's exactly that experience with Fury's former Premier Development League team, where Haworth set a club with record with 18 goals in all competitions, that got him noticed by the likes of coach Marc Dos Santos.

"I had the opportunity to watch Carl play with our PDL team and I believe he deserves to play at a higher level now," Dos Santos said at the time.

Haworth signed his first pro contract before last season and entered camp with a question mark as to where he would line up on the depth chart. But he impressed early, took advantage of an injury-plagued spring season for the club and wound up playing 1,530 minutes in 24 appearances, scoring twice.

Last year was an important step for Haworth, who grew up in Barrie and had a standout NCAA career at Niagara, where he collected 35 goals and 21 assists for 93 points in 73 games. But it hasn't been an easy journey, either. Haworth was released by the Montreal Impact after being selected in the 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft following a 12-goal campaign in his final season at Niagara and the player admits he didn't know initially what his next step was going to be.

"I was drafted by Montreal and released and went on a couple trials and nothing was working out," Haworth said Tuesday after a Fury training session in Gatineau. "It was sort of a low point for me."

But things started looking up for Haworth after the disappointment of not cracking an MLS roster. He was called up to the Canadian U-23 team for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers and then heard Ottawa was getting an NASL franchise.

Haworth credits then-Fury coach Stephen O'Kane and manager Marc Lapointe "for recruiting me pretty hard for the PDL and having faith in me to make that next step."

"They wanted the best for me and bringing me in they thought it was a good opportunity for me to have exposure to (Dos Santos)."

It's safe to say the move worked out pretty well for Haworth, who will head into this season with a bit of a different mindset.

"It's less adapting and more refining," Haworth said. "Having a year of experience makes a big difference. I'm more comfortable and more confident in the stuff that I'm doing."

Haworth, who scored the first-ever goal at TD Place last season, isn't going to reinvent the wheel this year; he wants to score more and play as much or more as he did last year and isn't treating his time with Fury a stopover to bigger things. Not yet, anyway.

"It definitelty could be a stepping stone, but right now I`m happy to be here and happy with the level (of play) and I`m just focusing on being here," he said.

MINOR INJURIES SHELVE RYAN, EUSTAQUIO

Ottawa Fury FC will be a little light in the midfield for Friday`s exhibition game against the Rochester Rhinos.

Both captain Richie Ryan and Mauro Eustaquio suffered minor injuries in last Friday's pre-season with against Toronto FC II and will be held out of the upcoming friendly as a precaution. Goalkeeper Romuald Peiser also suffered a minor injury in training this week but could be available Friday.

"(The injuries are) nothing significant," Fury coach Marc Dos Santos said Tuesday, adding the club just wants to make sure everyone is healthy to start the season April 4.

"When you`re on turf every day you have to manage in a certain way to keep everyone (healthy)."

Other than the injuries, Dos Santos was happy with his players' effort in the 3-2 win in Toronto.

"There was much more positive than negative," Dos Santos said. "We were 10 times more organized than we were last year (at this time)."

Twitter: @chrishofley