IT was pay what you want on Saturday at Crawley Town. The home club dropped their normal admission prices and allowed supporters to watch the game for as little as a pound.

Crawley were rewarded with a victory in front of their biggest crowd of the season; the 435 Hartlepool United fans behind the goal will have felt short-changed if they paid more than a quid.

This was a case of another Saturday, another routine defeat. Deja-vu from the previous weekend and so many more.

Just as was the case against Grimsby, Pools had enough of the ball, made plenty of passes, and moved the ball abound neatly without ever looking like scoring.

And once they fell behind – to a goal which was so preventable and predicable it was untrue – it was game over.

Crawley, a goal up, did what Grimsby did and sat on the edge of their area with their back three supplemented by deep-lying midfielders and invited Pools on.

It was a game plan operated safe in the knowledge that Pools were incapable of producing that killer pass or movement to get in behind them and make a difference.

Home keeper Glenn Morris had a single save to make, in the first-half Sean Kavanagh tried his luck from 25 yards and almost caught him out at the near post.

Other than that, nothing.

Too many games, too many points are passing Pools by. Their last three defeats have all been 1-0 and followed the same pattern.

Predictability rules at Pools.

Craig Hignett felt his side played well, controlled the game, and were the better side in the main.

Midfielder Michael Woods feels the time for praise and plaudits is gone; it’s time to get nasty.

“It is about time we stand up - players get cuddled too much. We are sick of looking over our shoulders and relying on other people losing,’’ he reflected.

“We need to step up and take responsibility. For all of the possession we need to be more ruthless.’’

“The run we went on at the end of last year we were hard to beat and caught teams on the break.

“This time we are doing everything to the box and then putting the brakes on – we give them a chance to get set again.

“It is not a lack of passion or belief or fight it is ruthlessness and decision making. We can’t keep relying on clean sheets.’’

There’s a lack of goals in this squad, when the forwards aren’t scoring the midfielders need to take some of the responsibility, and Woods admitted: “We have got to chip in.

“We have to do it week in week out - that’s what we are paid to do.

We are not doing it on the pitch. We are mollycoddled - we need to take responsibility.’’

Some of the individual displays on Saturday were desperate. Josh Laurent was a midfield passenger, yet he still managed to produce a pass out of sync with the game when he sprayed a perfect 60-yard ball with the outside of his boot into the path of Kavanagh.

Up front and, while Padraig Amond suffered after being felled off the ball by defender Josh Yorwerth, his partner Lewis Alessandra offered nothing in terms of creativity or strength.

The only goal came when Dean Cox was inexplicably shown inside by Jordan Richards onto his right foot and allowed to cross for top scorer James Collins to get in behind the defence and head in.

Surely Richards was well briefed on the danger Cox possess out wide? He’s made a career of being able to whip dangerous crosses into the area.

And so another defensive mistake leads to another defeat because at the other end there was never any chance of a leveller.

Pools changed players, and altered formation, but it mattered little.

Woods added: “I feel like a parrot at the minute.

“It is the same story week after week - we knock it about OK then where the game is won and lost in both boxes we let ourselves down.

“We just don't create enough chances and give other teams one or two decent ones a week.

“There is no one department that is not performing, it is the team as a whole.

“We need to be more ruthless - it is OK knocking the ball around but you have to have some end product.

“When you come away from home and it is tight you can't afford one lapse. We are letting ourselves down.’’