CARY — The Railhawks pulled out another late win against the Cleveland City Stars, 2-0, putting them at the top of their league – at least temporarily. The Portland Timbers beat the Charleston Battery late last night and joined Carolina at the top of the table once more.

Carolina won its four straight match, all shutouts, and now shares the top of the USL First Division table with 39 points. Cleveland was sent home winless over its last 11 matches.

“That’s important to us, staying at the top of the table,” midfielder Daniel Paladini said. “We didn’t want to take this team lightly – they came out a little slow, but we came out on top in the end.”

A painstakingly slow first half resulted in a 0-0 tie between the first-place Railhawks and the last-place City Stars. Coach Martin Rennie said the Railhawks became mired in a different style of play.

“When the tempo of the game is that slow, it’s really hard to change it,” Rennie said. “The way they play, unless you score early it can be a long night. The guys on the bench came on and really changed it up.”

Brian Plotkin and Amir Lowery had shots batted away early. Sallieu Bundu got behind Cleveland goalie Evan Bush, but teammate Troy Roberts manned the line in his stead and kicked it away.

“It was a bit slow in the beginning,” Paladini said. “When you play against an opponent that’s not moving that fast, our movement’s slower. They were taking their time – they wanted one point. We definitely wanted three.”

Alioune Gueye received a red card after upsetting Paladini, who admittedly “made it look a little worse than it was” because he was running at a full-on sprint.

Rennie was about to refresh the line-up once again, but it didn’t turn out to be necessary. Richardson sprung Budnyy on a breakaway six minutes later, but Bush caught the shot. He sent it right back out to Richardson, who buried it in the corner. Richardson and the Railhawks were visibly relieved and the crowd, which had been virtually silent for 81 minutes of play, jumped to its feet.

“I passed it, but I know the guy is slow, it came around to me and I was able to score,” Richardson said. “It was a good goal for getting the lead.”

Mark Shulte said this tendency to seal the game late is something that will eventually benefit his team.

“We came out a little flat in the first half, in the second half I feel like we took it to them a little more,” Shulte said. “It’s been a fair amount of games now where we’ve had late goals and we’re starting to get that believe where no matter what, we’re going to come through and win games. That will be huge come playoff time.”

Paladini added insult to injury during the three additional minutes allotted for stoppage. The ball squeaked out of Bush’s hands and Paladini pounced.

“I like scoring in the 90th minute against Cleveland,” Paladini said, referencing the time he performed the same feat – May 29th for a 1-0 last-second win.