OLD TRAFFORD HAS ITS prawn sandwich-eaters and a fair few bottles of Chablis are drunk at Stamford Bridge these days, but travelling Wrexham supporters were too busy demonstrating about the involvement of United Plotowners Associates (UPA), the Surrey-based property company, in the bidding process to buy their club to sample the fare provided by the caterers at the Matchroom Stadium in East London on Saturday afternoon.

The North Wales club were relegated from League One last season after they became the first team to be deducted ten points by the Football League for entering administration. About 200 of their supporters, worried that a housing development will be built on the Racecourse Ground, the club’s home since 1872, demonstrated outside the offices of UPA on their way to this match and Denis Smith, the Wrexham manager, acknowledged the vital role that the fans are playing in securing the future of the club.

“Our supporters have been superb in so far as they are determined to prove that the club is worth saving,” he said. “They want to make sure that whoever takes over is the right person to take this club forward.”

Despite a failure to win away from home this season, Wrexham have few problems on the pitch, with the impressive midfield double act of Darren Ferguson and Mark Jones dictating the pace and rhythm of this lacklustre match. Ferguson opened the scoring after 53 minutes with an audacious left-foot strike from the edge of the penalty area before Gary Alexander rescued a point for the home team ten minutes from time with a far-post header from a cross by Matthew Lockwood. Leyton Orient have not won at home since the opening day of the season, but Smith has more pressing concerns.

“The pressures off the field affect the players more than they affect me because I have been around a long time,” he said. “I could have left this club, but I made a decision to stay and see this through because this is a club which could go forward and develop to be an important part of the North Wales community.”

Without meaningful contracts and on meagre wages, Smith, his staff and players continue to work in circumstances that are a million miles from the pampered lifestyles of the Barclays Premiership elite. The next time you hear someone complain that all professional footballers are spoilt and overpaid, spare a thought for the men who wear the shirts of Wrexham.