Thrilled Wakefield vow to justify Super League reprieve

Trinity were widely expected to be the casualties of this morning’s licensing announcements by the Rugby Football League, with their current ground not up to the required standard and a string of financial problems on their record.

But the decision of the Crusaders to withdraw their application at the 11th hour allowed Wakefield to take the 14th spot for the next three years ahead of Halifax.

Regardless of events in Wales, Wakefield owner Andrew Glover and chief executive James Elston believed their bid, which promised to upgrade the current facilities at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium before a move to a new, purpose-built ground, was strong enough to succeed on its own merits.

And, with three years ahead of them to deliver on the promises, the club are determined to make sure they are never at risk of expulsion again.

“We put it all in our application, so it has to take place. That is absolutely what will happen,” said Glover, a local double glazing firm owner who saved the club from possible liquidation in February.

Glover, Elston, their veteran coach John Kear and a number of the club’s staff learned of the decision live, not long after 11am this morning, with the assembled media locked out of the ground owing to the club not wanting their likely misery captured on film.

As it was, Elston and Glover were drinking champagne instead, and promised to make the most of their second chance.

“There’s a lot of disbelief in all honesty, we didn’t expect it,” Glover said.

“We get the same gossip as everyone else, there was nothing official and we didn’t have the time to find out what had happened to the Crusaders.”

While Glover’s money has driven Wakefield away from trouble, it has been Elston, a former hooker with Dewsbury, who has been hands-on at the club, leading the formation of their application.

“All the work that has been put in is phenomenal,” Elston said.

“When I first spoke to Andrew, who was a back-of-the-shirt sponsor at the time, we didn’t know where we were going to go.

“We had been given two winding-up orders and we needed someone to bring us through it and he did.

“Make no bones about it, on a Thursday evening in February, there was possibly nobody to come in. There was a very dim future for this club and it could have been the Championship for us then.

“But you put your money where your mouth is and someone had to. Someone in Wakefield had to and without Andrew we don’t know where we would have been.”

In a cruel twist of fate, Wakefield face the Crusaders in West Yorkshire on Sunday and, while not wanting to rub salt into the Welsh side’s wounds, Elston has declared it will be a day of celebration for the 138-year-old club.

“We have a game against the Crusaders and it’s a party for the Wakefield supporters,” he said.

“Once and for all, they can take the monkey off their backs and enjoy their rugby league.

“I can’t imagine what the Crusaders will be feeling. I just hope they were as prepared as we were. This club has won championships and has a body and heritage that means we know how to fight back.

“This has been an unbelievable process. I told the staff they will never work harder than they have done over the last six months.”

Throughout the licensing process, Wakefield have come under more scrutiny than most and, although he stopped short of endorsing the system, Glover did accept that it had helped him shape the future of the club.

“We talk about promotion and relegation, and that assesses one part of your business,” Glover said.

“But we have written a good business plan and this has made our business better. We have itemised things and looked at things that we would not have done.

“I don’t think it’s perfect, but I don’t think promotion and relegation is.”