TORONTO

If Toronto FC fans didn’t already, they now know what Bill Murray felt like in Groundhog Day.

Once again the Reds were undone by a late-game gaffe in Colorado that handed the Rapids maximum points — but at least it wasn’t in stoppage time.

During what seemed like a harmless cross floated into TFC’s area in the 86th minute, late-game disaster once again set in.

Instead of clearing his lines, Logan Emory slipped inside Joe Bendik’s goal box, leading to Colorado’s Edson Buddle slamming home the winner from close-range in a match the Reds deserved something from.

Instead, though, Toronto fell to 1-4-4 on the season, dropping their eighth point from winning or even positions after the 85th minute in games this season.

But the Reds shouldn’t have even been in such a late-game predicament.

Two minutes before Buddle’s go-ahead goal, Robert Earnshaw, who has been nothing short of perfect through the first two months of the season, scuttled his second sitter of the game.

On a two-on-one inside Colorado’s area in the 84th minute, Earnshaw received a through-ball from Luis Silva that put the Wales international in alone on rookie goalkeeper Clint Irwin.

Normally 100% from close range, Earnshaw didn’t even hit the target, missing at the near post before Buddle came back and scored the other way.

In a similar position on the half-hour mark, Earnshaw put another sitter over Irwin’s bar after Silva dummied a cross five metres from Irwin’s goal.

It was a cruel result in a match the Reds undoubtedly deserved something from, especially after a humiliating 6-0 Canadian Cup loss to the Montreal Impact midweek.

Toronto’s defence was sound and Bendik, who has been fantastic all season, deserved his first clean sheet of the season, one that would have been Toronto’s first in an MLS match since last October.

In the 12th minute, TFC’s first-choice ’keeper saved the Reds yet again when he came out to smother former TFC midfielder Nick LaBrocca, who collected a low cross at the back post before firing his attempt into a charging Bendik.

Other than a few half-chances, the Rapids didn’t produce much else against a TFC defence that looked much better with Darren O’Dea and Gale Agbossoumonde centrally, and Emory in for Ashtone Morgan on the left.

Second-half substitute John Bostock lined up TFC’s final chance of the game in stoppage time, but sailed his attempt from 25-metres well over the frame.

The Reds next head to San Jose on Wednesday night, looking to win for just the second time in 24 MLS contests.