Great Scott Crashes The Pools Party

Debutant Quigley at double for Reds

- Thomas Hannah

HARTLEPOOL UNITED are in a financial mess off the pitch, and on it they are a football mess.

Up for sale, hopes are high a new owner will be in place next week, and with debts of around £1.8m, a fund-raising campaign has raised around £60,000 to keep them going.

But on the grass, Pools have won only one in 13. Wrexham showed them how to do it.

They were strong at the back, organised throughout and, at the other end, had a clinical striker in Scott Quigley, signed on loan from Blackpool last week.

As far as debuts go, it couldn’t have been any better for the striker, who played under Pools boss Craig Harrison during his time in charge of TNS in the League of Wales. The defeat and performance from Pools had an all-too-familiar ring to it.

In front of a crowd of 6,833 as the town and north east rallied around the club, they played neat football, but offered no cutting edge in front of goal and were weak at the back.

Harrison said: “It’s a feeling of disappointment, it has to be. Anger, disappointment – all those words to go along with it.