The best seasons I can remember were mid 1997 through to mid 1999.

What happened and why did it feel the best to me?

We had players who really connected to the fans and showed it during every game and after every game. "I know what and who I am" wasn't just a song that was sung with passion by the players and fans it genuinely had meaning.
The truth was then as it is now,

'This club is the fans' period!

No fans no club!

Alienate the fans and you're on a slow but certain path the end of Wakefield Trinity!

The good news is that the opposite is true, engage with the fans, make Belle Vue as inviting as possible and fans will return even at full price.

A competitive, not necessarily winning, team would be nice but Wakefield Trinity fans have been brought up on scraps of success so competitive will do for now.

The current regime have done so many many things well and I for one think they're potentially the best owners we've had since Stuart Hadfield. In order to justify that statement they need to find a way to re-engage the City and its people.

Easier said than done but incremental improvement toward that goal will soon show significant benefits to the income of the business.

It really is easy to criticise, but remember it is impossible to get everything right.
Why doesn't someone on here take up the offer and buy the club from MC for the quid it is going for .
Some have even said there is money, just redirect it.
Well get in there and do it.
I certainly would not be willing to accelerate myself into an early grave.
Surely there must be some feelings of sympathy for the management.
We were all fairly confident at the beginning of the season and no one foresaw such a disastrous on field season, which has heightened and intensified the overall criticism.
Carter and co must be as desperate as we all are.
Well ,the majority,for I feel there are those who are wanting and willing us to fail, who would take some illogical and demonic pleasure in that failure.

Back on topic!

My prediction for Saturday is a convincing win, not just on the score board but as a performance!

If we all listen carefully during the game I'm sure we'll hear a definite 'click' coming from the vicinity of the pitch.

Wakefield 34 v 14 Bradford

I too have found the people on the gate ,the stewards, bar staff all very helpful and friendly. Everything has combined to reduce crowds this year. First match away. Easter home match against Catalans, potential big crowd matches televised, and most important the dreadful playing record.

Have to agree regarding the stewards…never had a problem .

I'm sure you'll agree we all have our opinions, and imo his post was was excellently put forward without bias, the only exception to that was about bigal and his dealings with the club, as a person I know him and his family reasonably well, I've socialised with them been to matches with them from as far apart as Edinboro to The Stoop and Bridgend, I've been to fundraisers and walked to Hudds' and back as well as Cas x3, so I would always lean towards him and his family, unfortunately I'm ignorant of what went on that day and therefore not wishing to spoil his post did not comment on it.
As for the usual culprit allegation, so as to not cause confusion I'll name the three of them, Wilzay, Scarlet(bless her) and kalavnikosh, There are times when I find it difficult to disagree with their posts, but at the same time feel they always let themselves down with their constant whining and their bucket loads of negativity, whether it be Carter, the club, player recruitment, team selection, or tactics, nothing ever suits them hence my usual suspect accusation, and as you yourself imply Carter cannot be blamed for everything.
Personally I would take offence if anybody called me a crony, apart from the less savoury meanings it does not sound nice as you yourself admitted, I might be wrong here old boy, but I doubt you'd be too happy and feel insulted if somebody referred to you as one of Ted's cronies, so I agree with you, you should not have said it, and just because someone somewhere agrees with any of Carters or more to the point does not disagree with him, like myself does not make me one of his cronies.

You will

I was one of Teds lesser cronies, doesn't bother me in the least. However I do not know Carter so I can only take what I see as a club first stance.

Must admit I do feel uncomfortable naming Carter in particular but he is the only point of reference. I had no such issue with Glover as I think many will recall I called him a fraud very early on. The problem with this guy is he’s very hard to actually pin down. Other than his obvious desire to balance the book he’s offered very little in the way of a vision for the future both in word and deed. I just don’t know what if any ambition he has for the club. It’s clearly got under his skin else he wouldn’t be here but what that pans out to in terms of a future remains a mystery - unless you know something I don’t.

His stance on the ground is matter of fact with no emotion, to me he clearly sees us as a franchise rather than a club that represents Wakefield and I think people need to wake up to that.

Carter could go on to be our finest Chairman ever but at the moment I’m struggling to see how - and I genuinely hope he does go on to great things.

In all honesty I just don’t get the guy.

Ahhh those were the days.... Garen Casey leading the singalong, Adam & Ian Hughes, Roy Southernwood, Martyn Holland etc etc, decent solid pros who gave everything, leading to that never to be forgotten September Saturday at the McAlpine was it then?! Celebrating in the pubs in Huddersfield, promotion to the promised land......

You are right, in simple terms, no fans buying season tickets, paying on the day = no club. I don't to profess to know what it takes to run a 'successful' RL club, and of course success is relative to lots of things within that particular club, but I don't recall the club as a whole being at such a low ebb as it is right now, it's a real shame that people are almost 'turning' on each other on here, relationships strained in reality also at the current situation. Apart from a very select few, there won't have been many so called experts who would have given us a cat in hell's chance of surviving this long? What has it been, 16 successive seasons in the top flight? When you think about having probably the worst ground, always behind the eight ball when it came to funding, player recruitment, odds always seemingly stacked against us in so many ways, maybe we have done pretty well, even though some of our 'problems' were of our own making. Maybe that was us being successful in relative terms, simply being here in the top flight, refusing to go away and p*****g off the majority into the bargain Last chance probably tomorrow, if we lose I think that's it, we have had it, and we'll have to say, it was good while it lasted, then we enter the unknown..... If we win, we still have hope, live to fight another day, win some more and we may just do it, stay up, and, enter the unknown.....?!

Think we will win, probably the hard way as per usual......28-22.

I don't know Michael Carter and have never met him but I really feel for the bloke. He's caught between a rock and a hard place.
Does he follow previous regimes and spend money we haven't got going for some moderate success (e.g a couple of top 8 finishes over 16 years and a cup semi) or does he make painful decisions and get the club on an even keel financially and surviving in whatever division that may be?
I like most on here thought that Glover was the 'saviour' but at the end of the day he was all fur coat and no knickers and for the second (third?) time the club nearly went to the wall as a result.
In my opinion he made mistakes hanging on to Agar and Webster for too long but that was, I feel, born out of loyalty, a commodity sadly lacking these days in all areas of business, so I won't knock him for that. Tough decisions had/have to be made but he's the guy along with CB who put his money where his mouth is to save the club so the guy has to feel something for the club otherwise he wouldn't have done it. I'm sure he's not as niaeve to believe he would ever make money out of it.
The club does need to engage with the City of Wakefield again, how about half s dozen volunteers in the precinct on a Saturday asking questions. e.g
1. Do you Watch Wakefield Trinity?
2. Have you ever watched and now stopped?
3.Why did you stop? (have a selection of answers . eg Price, lack of success, other, etc)
4. What would it take to get you back?
5. Do you care about professional sport in Wakefield.
These might be crap examples but I'm sure minds far superior than mine could come up with something. Heck, I might even take up a clipboard myself. From this we may learn what we need to do to re-connect with the support.

Just a thought.

The weather looks great this morning, perfect for an entertaining game of Rugby League.

Belle Vue is a great venue when the suns shining and we might not have too many more opportunities to follow Wakefield Trinity at our historical home.

Don't watch it on SKY having to listen to the muppets ruining the game with their inane rambling and negative spin. Get yourself down to the ground, get in the North stand and make yourself heard along with many other proud Wakefield Trinity supporters.

Agreed, the sun is shining. Perfect day to watch RL live.
We need to adopt a seige mentality at BV today.

Yep, perfect day for watching RL.

Anyone know if the club have been out in force trying to entice the Wakefield public in the run up to the game? Lots of parents looking for something for their bored school children to do.

They have tweeted about it, and posted on facebook.

tweeted and facebook gates locked half an hour before kick off then.