Leigh Leopards v Wakefield Trinity: Visitors return to scene of relegation a club transformed

O'Brien's golden-point drop goal condemned Trinity to the Championship and sparked scenes of despair.

From Lee Kershaw's tears to Michael Carter's confrontation with the travelling fans, it was a night that nobody associated with Wakefield would wish to revisit.

Outgoing chief executive Carter warned of job cuts in the immediate aftermath but a week later came the news that Matt Ellis had agreed a deal to purchase the club.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Ellis has transformed Trinity from top to bottom, giving the players an environment to thrive in and the supporters a team to be proud of.

Daryl Powell was quickly identified by Ellis as the man to lead Wakefield's revival and he has repaid that faith in spades.

After bouncing back in style by winning the Championship treble, Trinity are unrecognisable as a club as they prepare to return to the scene of their relegation tonight.

The visiting supporters and the five surviving players may feel a sense of poignancy but it is business as usual for Powell's new-look Trinity.

"To be honest, I haven't considered that as a motivation," said Powell, whose side have won two of their five Super League fixtures.

"I just think we're in a good place at the moment. We would have liked to have won another game in the league. I thought we were pretty close to that last week.

"For us it's about finding some consistency in performances and not worrying about some of the external things."

Together, Ellis and Powell have reconnected Trinity with the fanbase and created a sense of unity.

To show his appreciation to supporters who have purchased tickets for both games against Leigh, Ellis has offered free coach travel to tonight's Super League fixture.

"You can see how many fans we're taking away from home and the atmosphere down here last week was electric," said Powell.

"The Hull fans really supported their team in big numbers and we had an awesome crowd. The atmosphere was great and the result was close right to the end.

"We couldn't quite get the job done but there's a real unity of purpose and a belief that we're heading towards what we want to achieve.

"All of it shows what we're about as a club at the moment. Matt doing that is a decent gesture."

The clash at Leigh Sports Village presents Powell's side with the opportunity to bounce back from last week's disappointing defeat to Hull FC, a result that stalled Wakefield's momentum after back-to-back victories at Warrington Wolves and Huddersfield Giants.

Trinity were left to rue three disallowed tries on a frustrating night under the lights at Belle Vue but Powell has stressed that the solution to his side's early inconsistency lies within.

"We've got to move on and look to improve in this game," he said.

"We made too many errors last week so we've got to look at ourselves first and make sure we tidy up our game.

"We know it'll be another tough challenge. Their squad is pretty much full strength and we're not by any stretch of the imagination at the minute.

"But we're in a good place. We're battling hard and have been close in pretty much all the games we've played so far.

"We just need to tweak a couple of areas and cut out those errors to get our completion rate up a little bit and give ourselves a chance to apply pressure to the opposition."

Wakefield can ill afford to make the same mistakes against the high-flying Leopards.

Adrian Lam's side lost their unbeaten record in a heavy defeat to Hull KR but have shown enough to suggest they will be in the mix at the end of the season.

Trinity's own trophy prospects will become clearer after the double-header against Leigh, with this week's meeting followed by a Challenge Cup quarter-final at Belle Vue next Friday.

It may be a unique experience for some of Wakefield's players, but not for Powell.

"I've been in this situation quite a few times," said the former Leeds Rhinos and Castleford Tigers boss.

"When I was the head coach of Leeds, we won the league game against St Helens before winning the semi-final with the goal kick from the sideline from Kevin Sinfield.

"I've been here before and know what it's all about. That second game will be an interesting one.

"You potentially play slightly differently in the first game than you do in the second. It's always an interesting match-up when you've got two games straight after each other.

"The fixture list is crazy this year anyway. We play Castleford twice in two weeks soon.

"This is just one of those things with the Challenge Cup. We're just looking forward to it. It's going to be a great challenge."