Crewe aren't a good side, but they were easily good enough to account for Pools at what used to be Gresty Road (apparently it's called the Alexandra Stadium now, but it's still next to the railway).
Sam Collins passed a fitness test and played, while Ben Clark and James Brown were on the bench after recovering from their injuries.
But the good news ended there for Pools, and apart from a late goal from Joel Porter (left) that gave them some hope for a few minutes, Pools were poor (other descriptions censored on the grounds of good taste, it being Easter and all that).
Danny Wilson made the usual "you have to make the right decisions and defend properly" noises after the game - the sort of stuff he must be thoroughly fed up of saying.
But then he added: "We have such a good bunch of lads here - they are too nice at times.
"There isn't a bad apple amongst them and they are a pleasure to work with. But we let things drift at times. After three great results, we thought we had turned the corner, but now we are back to square one again.
"I don't want to be in mid-table, I want to be in the top two. If players can't take us there, wse will have to change things. If we can't afford to change them, then we'll be in mid-table again."
Whether that was a direct invitation to club owners IOR to give him some money to strengthen the squad during the summer is open to question, but it sounds that way to us. Pools have spent about £150,000 in more than a year - £75,000 each on Richard Barker from Mansfield and Collins from Hull.
Teams doing well in League One have generally spent a lot more than that, but the income at Pools is down because the crowds have responded to the team's inconsistent season by staying away.
Do IOR have the cash to allow Wilson to splash it during the summer?
Is he given free reign to spend money?
Does he know what he needs for next season?
The next few months coiuld be very interesting, which is more than can be said of Pools performance at Crewe.
They need to respond with good showings against Yeovil and Swansea at the Vic on Easter Monday and next Saturday.

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