“You, the lifeblood of this football club, can really help us,” the Tranmere manager, Andy Crosby, wrote as he made an impassioned attempt in his programme notes to galvanise the fanbase before the defeat by Barnet on Saturday made it seven games without a victory in League Two and left the club in 19th place.

Crosby celebrated steering Tranmere to safety last season by joining supporters for a drink in the bar run by the supporters’ trust – less than five yards from the Prenton Park main stand – that is now at the heart of a legal dispute which has created a rift between the club and a section of the fans. Given the team’s form, unity is needed more than ever. Rovers finished 20th last season and two wins in 11 matches in this campaign indicate that the aim is to keep their heads above water again.

This makes it all the more remarkable that the club, owned by Mark and Nicola Palios, have been exchanging legal letters and tit-for-tat statements with the trust more often than the players are securing points. Even more surprising is the fact it stems from a successful collaboration between the...