Trinity determined to build on reprieve provided by Crusaders

The West Yorkshire club were as shocked as anyone yesterday when they heard they had received one of the 13 remaining licences, given they were overwhelming favourites to miss out.

The surprise decision of troubled Welsh outfit Crusaders to withdraw their application on the eve of the RFL announcement, due to on-going financial problems, paved the way for Trinity to remain in the elite for another three-year period.

It brought scenes of utter disbelief at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium, where owner Andrew Glover, chief executive James Elston and head coach John Kear were joined by the playing squad and office staff to watch the televised link from Old Trafford.

Such was Wakefield’s inner acceptance that they would be cut adrift that they refused to allow the gathering media in to the ground prior to 11am because they did not want to be filmed receiving the expected bad news.

They had called a press conference at noon in readiness to talk about life in the Championship but, instead, minutes after the RFL chairman read out their name – Trinity chief executive James Elston described them as the “three best words” Richard Lewis had ever uttered – they threw the doors open and began the briefing early in a completely different mood.

The huge turnaround has massive significance for one of the game’s member clubs whose future among the elite had been cast into serious doubt due to problems with their stadium plans and the fact they had entered administration earlier this year.

But for Glover, who invested heavily to save them from liquidation in February, the bold gamble has paid off and he is now aiming to enable Trinity to make a return to the sport’s upper echelons last visited in their golden era of the 1960s.

“Everyone was absolutely elated when we heard,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

“We’d prepared ourselves for both the Championship and Super League and thought our application was strong, but this did come as a shock.

“Peoples’ livelihoods were at stake – throughout the club – and I know I’ve not had a proper night’s sleep for six months, the last month as we approached D-day being particularly tough.

“But they don’t have to worry now and we’ll make sure we don’t ever have to worry like this again.

“We’re still a C-grade club according to the licence but we will be an A-grade club.

“It’ll probably take us 10 years but we’ll work our way up the ladder so we know Super League is secure for Wakefield.

“We’re in complete control of our own destiny now where before that wasn’t the case.”

Trinity expect to hear a decision from the public inquiry about their planned new stadium at Newmarket in December with the hope they can start building in the Spring but Glover has established plans to re-vamp their current home in the interim.

Elston, who has proved a driving force on a daily basis in the club’s bid to emerge from their troubles, admitted Glover’s arrival proved crucial in securing yesterday’s remarkable decision.

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

“We had been given two winding-up orders, 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 in Wakefield had to. Without Andrew we don’t know where we would have been. Now, this is just a fantastic day for the club.”

It was an historic one too. When it started, fearful Wakefield must have felt just like those Leeds players waiting for Don Fox’s simple stoppage-time conversion in the 1968 Challenge Cup final – doomed.

But, just as Trinity’s Fox famously missed that kick at the conclusion to send their rivals into ecstasy, so jubilant Wakefield were the ones yesterday benefiting from the unlikeliest of reprieves.

They had said the club would be closed for business yesterday but – with Elston and Glover enjoying some hard-earned champagne – quickly posted a message on the website saying the bar would be open from 1pm to begin the celebrations.

Someone not toasting the decision was incandescent Keith Senior, the former Leeds Rhinos centre who earlier this month turned down offers from Wakefield and other Super League clubs to sign a two-year deal with Crusaders.

He raged in an expletive-filled tweet about them being a “joke” for messing him around but the ex-Great Britain star, 35, is likely to have a number of suitors with Trinity quickly at the front of the queue.

Kear knows his recruitment plans will be tough given many players had refused to entertain Wakefield due to doubts about their future and have already signed elsewhere.

But he said: “We can start now and this is just a massive reward for a lot of people who have done so much hard work at the club,”

In an ironic twist, Trinity play host to Crusaders, who are now in real turmoil, on Sunday.

Halifax deserved that Licence - Steele

IRATE Halifax chairman Michael Steele believes his club should be in Super League instead of Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.

“Wakefield’s strong point, as they have been pushing it lately, is their history but we at least equal that,” he said, of the Championship club who missed out for a second time in four months following Widnes Vikings’ elevation in March.

“We have a ground, they don’t. We haven’t been bankrupt, they have.

“It seems a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned that if it’s between Halifax and Wakefield, then Halifax are in and Wakefield should not be.

“They have broken the terms of their existing licence so why give them another one? I would ask Richard Lewis what is the point of having rules if you don’t apply them?”

RFL chairman Lewis responded: “We will sit down with Halifax and explain what their weaknesses were and where other clubs put in a stronger case.”