THEY turned out in their numbers to show their support for the troubled institution that is Hartlepool United Football Club.

They raised the funds to pay wages for both staff and players next week. They gave up their own time for free to raise funds.

And what did supporters get back in return? Nothing.

Not even a shot. Not a chance of any note. Not a jot of excitement, a chance, a penalty box scramble. Nothing to offer any hope that things will get better. Just a routine home defeat. The sort they have seen time and time and time again. The sort they are sick of seeing.

The worst team in the history of the club, and boy has there been some bad ones over the years, couldn’t even raise their game and give something back to the people who care about the club more than any of them ever will.

It wasn’t asking a lot was it?

As Victoria Park started to fill up, the players came out to warm up in T-shirts sporting words which thanked the fans for their efforts. That was all they offered all afternoon.

And even then, when the players clapped the fans on the terraces and stands and tossed their T-shirts into the crowd, it seemed half-hearted.

Most players shied away from the packed Town End, the majority of them heading towards the sanctuary of the tunnel and dressing room.

It could have been so much more raucous, more rabble rousing. Instead hiding set the tone for another insipid Victoria Park performance.

The crowd, 6,833 of them made up of die-hard Poolies, lapsed supporters who returned in the hour of need, Middlesbrough fans showing their support for the club which helped their club survive in 1986, those in Sunderland and Newcastle shirts standing side by side backing the boys in blue and white, wanted something to cheer.

It was almost half-time by the time Nicky Deverdics broke away and curled a low cross towards Devante Rodney, who was brushed off the ball in the penalty area.

The crowd reacted, they roared with excitement. It was the first time they had something remotely worth getting warm about.

And so it remained the same for the rest of the game.

Pools are fine at knocking the ball around, but it’s aimless and pointless. Square, sidewards, five yards forward, back again. No width, no penetration. It gets them nowhere. It didn’t in League Two 12 months ago and it won’t in the National League either.

There’s no drive to get in and beyond opposition defences. A severe lack of pace in the side. No willingness to show more and move out of first gear, or even neutral in most cases.

The system doesn’t suit the players, but there’s no plan B. This division is basic and routine, 4-4-2 is king, with a big centre half or two and a burly striker part of the fabric of the majority of teams.

Jake Cassidy is too isolated in the middle of a front three when he’s playing with attackers who aren’t capable of showing any physicality or basic desire.

Devante Rodney was lively, but when the ball was played in the area, he never looked like winning any, never getting across his man or making runs into space.

If he’s going to play at Chester tomorrow, then pitch him up front alongside Cassidy.

As for the midfield three, what do they offer? Nicky Featherstone wasn’t his usual assured self in possession, giving the ball away and miscontrolling the ball on occasions. When he is below his usual standard it’s noticeable.

At the back, Pools don’t defend. They pass the ball around the back four, but go nowhere with it. Wrexham were happy to see them do it, safe in the knowledge it would lead to nothing.

Once again a visiting goalkeeper left Victoria Park after enjoying the easiest of afternoons.

Boss Craig Harrison said: “We didn’t step up to it, but no-one forms below their levels on purpose. Sometimes we lacked a bit of quality, that’s the story with us.

“We work hard in training and you don’t have to be a great player not to make a mistake. That’s the be all and end all. How many teams have gave us a goal, how many have we gave them?

“I understand the bigger picture and the club is bigger than me, the previous manager, the current players, the past players. We had a chance today to do our bit in the scale of it, but we didn’t get a positive result which is infuriating.’’

Of Saturday’s starting XI, seven of them played last season. Seven footballers from the worst Pools team of all time have joined up with some new signings to produce the worst team ever mark II. It’s some going in such a short space of time to win that award twice.

A welter of new signings were made in the summer, but how many have proved a success?

Pools are left with a bloated squad consisting of too many players who aren’t good enough. And all while the club for the past year has employed a Head of Recruitment. That’s some track record there.

It was one of the summer signings, Blair Adams, who gave Wrexham the opener. Caught in possession out wide, he was robbed with ease by Scott Quigley.

A striker signed on loan from Blackpool and who Pools boss Craig Harrison managed for five years in Wales, he got away from Adams, skipped around Liam Donnelly and finished low.

Pools had hit the bar before the opener, Donnelly cracking against the frame of the goal from close range.

After conceding, there was little response.

And the second goal followed, from a Pools corner.

The team which brings everyone back to defend when the opposition get a corner was picked off with ease on the counter attack. Where was the shape? The organisation? The desire to defend?

Scott Boden and Scott Quigley combined and the latter raced away, he never looked like he was going to miss.

“Again we conceded stupid goals at stupid times, ridiculous,’’ reflected Harrison.

This was Pools’ seventh home league defeat of the season. An appalling statistic.

There are high hopes that a deal will be completed this week. The club is in as bad a mess on the pitch as it is off it. Huge changes are needed. They can only be for the better.