OK, listen up, people of Wakefield:
We have ended the season with 32 points, our highest total for a long time, we have finished fifth in the top division, our highest position at the end of the regular season since 1981, we are in very good form at present and have achieved far more than even the most optimistic of us would have dared to do so.
BUT all of this is now irrelevant, because from hereonin, the really hard graft begins.
OK, it may be Catalans Dragons we've got at Belle Vue, but they have earned the right to be in the playoffs as much as we have and weren't too shabby in their playoffs debut last year and when you get into knockout rugby league and start writing off the opposition before the kick off even takes place, then you're asking for trouble. Remember when we played Hull FC five years ago in our first SL playoff match? Not many people expected us to perform that night and even though Hull were missing a quarter of a team and had no true goal kicker on the pitch, but were however still expected by many so-called "experts" to win. The rest is of course history.
Now you could say we are in that very same position and of course, it was Catalans Dragons who last year proved to be the catalyst of our downfall for what was proving to be a promising looking season for us when they showed us up well and truly at Belle Vue, SKY cameras present an' all. Mind you being in a Challenge Cup semi-final, as nice as it was, didn't help matters neither.
So what since that fateful night, Tuesday 1st July 2008, when our season started going belly-up that we have beaten the Catalans three times, however, nothing would do better for us, than to win in front of the SKY cameras, put on a great show and above all, on this, what will be a historic night dear old Belle Vue, our first playoff match at home in the Super League era, coupled with the presence of the very same SKY cameras, there is and I will say this total clarity NO EXCUSE FOR AS MANY OF YOU SUPPORTERS TO EMBARK ON BELLE VUE THIS SATURDAY NIGHT AND AS DIFFICULT AS IT MAY BE, BUT TO CREATE A REALLY GOOD ATMOSPHERE!!
THE CLUB, ITS PLAYERS, THE MASTER THAT IS JOHN KEAR AND...
YOUR CITY NEEDS
YOU!!!
Thank you.