The Carolina RailHawks currently sit in a sixth-place tie in the standings for the Commissioner’s Cup — the trophy awarded to the first-place team at the end of the USL-1 regular season.

The RailHawks, with their 4-1 first-round win last week, are still chasing the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Hoisting that trophy is doable, but it’s a tall order. Only one non-MLS club has won that tournament since MLS teams entered the competition in 1996.

With an uphill climb to win one of those pieces of hardware, there is one table the first-year franchise currently leads — the Southern Derby.

The Southern Derby is a fan-based cup competition between the RailHawks, Atlanta Silverbacks and Charleston Battery. They play for the Derby Cup. Carolina is looking to move further ahead in the table this Saturday when it plays Charleston at SAS Soccer Park at 7:30 p.m.

“For the fans, it’s fun,” said Jarrett Campbell, the RailHawks über-fan who named the franchise and runs the team’s supporters club as well as a soccer-devoted blog. “It’s something we feel we have a part in. We didn’t create the league or the [Lamar Hunt U.S.] Open Cup, but it’s something the fans are doing to support the team and that’s what’s special.”

The competition was borne out of trash talk among supporters on the Web site a-league.com. The A-League was renamed the USL First Division in 2004 when it came under the umbrella of the United Soccer Leagues.

The Southern Derby was founded in 2000, when fans from Charleston, Atlanta and the Raleigh Capital Express gathered to discuss ways to increase fans’ support for their clubs, as well as support and awareness of the A-League. It was organized almost exclusively by communicating via online message boards.

After several discussions, the Southern Derby was formed. According to the competition’s charter, the fans wanted to give their teams something to win regardless of how their season was going.

Establishing the rules offered quite a paradox, though.

“The charter was funny because how do you have a contract with people you want to trust but don’t know?” said Fred Medlin, who served as the Express’ representative to the Derby board.

The Raleigh Express won the initial Cup in 2000, but the franchise folded later that year.

The competition continued, and the Charlotte Eagles moved into the Express’ spot. They won the 2001 Cup, but Charlotte didn’t stick around too long either. After the 2003 season, the Eagles dropped down to what is now USL Second Division. Since, Atlanta and Charleston have been competing against each other for the trophy. Atlanta has won it outright twice (2004, 2006) and the two teams shared the cup in 2005.

With no local team involved over the last six years, Medlin’s interest waned. He said he has not seen the cup since he shipped it away in 2001. But when it was announced the RailHawks would be joining USL-1 and be coming to Cary, Medlin essentially invited his new home-town team into the competition. Campbell said there was talk immediately from Atlanta and Charleston fans for the Carolina franchise to join in.

The contest’s charter dictates that for a new team to be added, a written request must be submitted to the board, which would then vote for that team’s inclusion.

That wasn’t the case with the RailHawks.

“Hearing about the new club got me all fired up and I jumped right in and said ‘We’re back in this thing,’” Medlin said. “Rather than make a request to the committee, we just sort of said, ‘What do we do to get started?’ No one said no, so here we are.”

There are two other fan-based cup competitions in USL-1. Vancouver, Seattle and Portland play for the Cascadia Cup, and Vancouver and Montreal play for the Voyageurs Cup.

Southern Derby matches are designated as the visitor’s final trip to an opponent’s ground that season. That’s why the RailHawks’ 1-0 win over Charleston May 19 does not count toward the Southern Derby race, whereas this Saturday’s match against the Battery does. Charleston will not return to Cary again during the regular season.

The RailHawks have played one Southern Derby fixture so far, and they currently lead the competition with three points. A win yields three points in the table, a draw one and a loss zero. The RailHawks beat the Silverbacks in Atlanta May 12. Charleston will enter Saturday’s match having played its first Southern Derby fixture in Atlanta the night before.

The 2007 competition concludes Aug. 17, when Atlanta makes its final trip of the season to Cary. Though the charter calls for the trophy to be handed out the week after the competition’s conclusion, Campbell said it could be handed out that night, especially if the RailHawks win it.

“The ideal scenario is we capture it that night,” Campbell said. “And either myself or Fred accepts it from the Atlanta supporters club. It’d be nice to take it away from them on our field and hand it to our players.”