Taken from the official site: Wakefield Trinity Wildcats wish to make the following statement following last night’s game against Castleford Tigers. The Club would like to thank the vast majority of supporters from both clubs who helped generate a fantastic atmosphere at the game and their behaviour was befitting of a sport and a Club that prides itself on being family friendly. The Club are aware of and are investigating a small number of incidents that occurred involving a minority of individuals at last night’s game and will take the appropriate action if necessary once the investigations have been concluded. Wakefield Wildcats take a zero tolerance approach to foul and abusive language and unacceptable behaviour and will not hesitate to ban individuals who are found to be guilty of this. If any supporters witnessed any incidents that they feel need bringing to the Clubs attention then please e-mail info@wakefieldwildcats.co.uk and mark your e-mail with the subject ‘Wakefield vs. Castleford’. The Club also wish to remind supporters of the ‘Tackle It’ number which they can text on a matchday if they hear or witness anything that they deem to be unacceptable. Simply text 07747554470 with what you have seen or heard and where in the stadium it has taken place, or inform the nearest steward.

Taken from the official site: Wakefield Trinity Wildcats wish to make the following statement following last night’s game against Castleford Tigers. The Club would like to thank the vast majority of supporters from both clubs who helped generate a fantastic atmosphere at the game and their behaviour was befitting of a sport and a Club that prides itself on being family friendly. The Club are aware of and are investigating a small number of incidents that occurred involving a minority of individuals at last night’s game and will take the appropriate action if necessary once the investigations have been concluded. Wakefield Wildcats take a zero tolerance approach to foul and abusive language and unacceptable behaviour and will not hesitate to ban individuals who are found to be guilty of this. If any supporters witnessed any incidents that they feel need bringing to the Clubs attention then please e-mail info@wakefieldwildcats.co.uk and mark your e-mail with the subject ‘Wakefield vs. Castleford’. The Club also wish to remind supporters of the ‘Tackle It’ number which they can text on a matchday if they hear or witness anything that they deem to be unacceptable. Simply text 07747554470 with what you have seen or heard and where in the stadium it has taken place, or inform the nearest steward.

Good of the club to not sweep it under the carpet (I didn't think they would, but still).

I hope everyone who saw something whether they think it to be of little significance of not informs the club because if we do not stand up individually and collective as fans of our club then this will continue to happen and ruin all the hard work many have put in to WTW. We all want an enjoyible friendly day at BV and it's up to us to ensure we let the club know when people tarnish the WTW name.

Where does it say Richard agar has re-signed????

I can only comment on what I've read on here from fans who I know have attended regularly for many years, but when these people describe the situation as akin to being in the middle of World War 3, then it doesn't sound like "a small number of incidents" to me.

I was shocked, embarrassed, and saddened by what I read last night, and expect the club to make every effort to identify and ban the culprits. This isn't the Wakefield Trinity I grew up supporting, and if it's the future, I want no part of it.

It was one fairly large and long running incident where we were stood that escalated as time went on. A major concern is that beer was still being served to these people despite the rising tension and continued throwing of drinks. Not sure what good emailing the club will do as I didn't know any of the people involved so how that will help them I have no idea. All in all I thought the stewards did a cracking job and the police should have been called a lot earlier than they were.

Well glad they are looking to be proactive over the events of last night although it does look more like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.
This has been the first big PR mistake by the club since AG took over IMO



Re-signed? are they giving him another 3years?



or do you mean resigned?

If everyone using foul and abusive language got banned from Belle Vue, we would lose at least 50% of the crowd, there were at least 20 fans within 5 metres radius of me shouting at Smith and Southern to F off back to Australia you useless pieces of S. Funnily enough they have a point.

Exactly right, i saw a fair few get frog marched out but could not see who carried on causing trouble, otherwise i would love to blob them in.

Not good last night on a few fronts:

I was standing right beside the trouble in the middle section of the North Stand - right at the back. We got to the ground early ( 6.15 ) because we were expecting a large turnout and we wanted to get a decent spot. Not many Cas fans there when we arrived and the ones that were there stood in the far corner where they had been asked to. As kick off got nearer more and more visiting fans began spreading further across and before long had taken half of the stand. Chav corner and the West terrace took a while to fill up as did the East stand. Seems most wanted to take advantage of the new roof - new atmosphere. From my point of view the whole atmosphere changed when the Cas fans started chanting 'we'll stand where we want'. All of a sudden I just got a gut feeling something would happen. More and more chants and singing, all harmless, until the game actually started. Certain Wakefield fans began congregating towards the middle of the stand whilst on the other side the Cas fans were doing exactly the same. There cant of been more than 3/4 stewards then initially but within 5 mins there were another 10 or so forming a line between the fans. More chants, more singing until the opening try. I cant honestly remember which side threw the first bottle but what I do know is both sides were throwing as much as the other. Plastic bottles, plastic pint pots......whatever......its just wrong. Neither side can come out of this well. Our so called supporters were trying to get through the stewards line to reach the Cas fans whilst they were just stood yards away goading and inviting trouble. The stewards were fantastic and had it not been for them the scenes would have been horrendous. Thats a fact. Our group of 8 stayed and refused to move until one of our party was hit with a bottle and about 10 mins into the second half a glass or bottle was thrown into the roof above the Wakefield fans and shattered glass fell down over a number of people. At this point it was a no brainer and we moved away before calling it a night with still 20 mins left on the clock. It was more like a scene from the bad old days in the 80's when football hooligans would have a tear up. Nothing ive ever seen before at Belle Vue since started going over25 years ago.

This City is ours slogan is harmless. If people think this is a cause of the problem - get real.

Lets go North is a fantastic idea. The atmosphere before and just after kick off was superb. But it HAS to be 100% Wakefield fans only in that stand. Segregation is a must and we have to follow the ways of other clubs and keep opposing fans apart. Im not having this 'Rugby League Family' and its a family game etc etc. It might of been years ago but it certainly isnt anymore. Yes - its a shame but times change and unfortunately Rugby League has also changed on and off the park. Keep the away fans down either side. If chav corner is becoming an issue give the Western terrace to the away sides and let the home fans stand togther behind the sticks !

The club are really trying to turn things around and the past few months have been better than the last 10 years. In hindsight, we could have done things differently last night and I have no doubt that major lessons have been learnt but lets move on now. We cant change what happened but we can prevent them from happening again. Deal with the issues from last night and put it to bed. Get the right things in place for the visit of Salford. Away fans to be given their own area. But the North Stand must be ours - completely.

lol, and then some! The RFL 'Family game LTD' probably worded the statement for us. I'm sure the Cas element of the minor incident was an unrelated Cas born 4yo playing outside the ground who threw a bottle top at a Wakey fan leaving 15 minutes early..

By Chav corner are you talking the area under the new small stand?

After queuing for 20 mins at east stand bottle bar, pre-match ( & enjoying friendly Conversation with others in line, both Wakey & Cas fans ) Iwas barged out of way by a queue-jumping tanked-up (& likely drug-intoxicated ) yob who was clearly "wired" for aggression (no colours, you know the type -some at every derby fixture ).
I am small build & in 50s so probably seen as soft target. At very real risk of being punched I confronted him & made clear to staff in kiosk what he 'd done. As he became even more wound up I suggested they not serve him & request steward assistance. After serving him (2 glass bottles of beer) they informed me they had no way of contacting stewards (& none were in vicinity - others in queue looked for them, in vain, during the altercation).
If I am charitable, the 2 young lasses serving may have averted trouble, but how come they had no back-up ( & didn't know the mobile number, given out earlier in This thread? I know they didn't, I asked).
This episode is a cameo of what is wrong:Bank holiday evening K.O. letting p@@ed up yobs in, not having support for staff, selling alcohol to these yobs, inadequate security.
On the 95 mile trip home, plenty time to reflect on whether I'll renew our season tickets for Trinity next time (fortunately, my wife stayed in her seat & didn't see the incident, otherwise decision would be made for me). I don't want the yobs to win & I love the spirit & cameraderie of RL generally & Wakey fans in particular (plus though I live down south now, Trinity's been my club since I Was

but safety is a MAJOR consideration & this needs sorting urgently.
Ps: thanks for others in queue, both Wakey & Cas, for talking me into backing off from further argument (probably saved me from a thump or worse) & nursing my bruised pride.

If I new any of them trouble makers I would report them but they were all in plain t shirts or hoodys I have never seen them at any games before! I've heard a rumour that they were fev fans but that's just rumours isn't it...

Well good on the club but lets all play our part if we see trouble looming get a steward in and get it sorted this goes for both home and away fans.The need to get rid of this type of so called fan is most important.You have to ask have the Hull clubs got the right idea with derby games an early kick off so less chance of booze fueled idiots.

Absolutely. My memory may be failing me here, but didn't we used to pay Fev on Good Friday in the 70's? I seem to recall that fixture being put forward because of all the agro caused by drunken fans (mostly Fev fans, of course...) having a full lunchtime on the lash.

I stand on the Western Terrace as do many Wakefield fans, why should that be changed because of mindless actions of a few. Chuck the idiots out at first sign of trouble they will soon get fed up. They need educating in how to behave . Lets get them in a classroom with their role models , say Amor , Cockayne & Aiton and be told by them their behaviour is not acceptable and is not supportive of the club & players. Making the rest of the fans pay for their behaviour by making everyone stand in North terrace is not fair.

While the ideas a good one it won't work, the blokes i saw gt thrown out are beyond any sort of help, Sue they are complete thugs and not just silly misbehaving rugby fans who have drunk too much, these could be dealt with in the classroom.

I'll say it again, none of the people i saw get thrown out and i did stand very close to the idiots looked like the average fan, complete hardcore thugs and not young lads, i have never seen these guys before at Wakey or Cas.

While a few from both side got a bit giddy i believe it only kicked off because of these thugs, otherwise we may have got away with a noisy singing stand.

I say this again as well, thanks to the stewards for being able to deal with these hardcore thugs.

Good morning GRLA - good to meet with you the other night - i was the yound cas lad that was talking to you in the line for the bottle bar. I commend you for both confronting the idiot in question and for your gracious retreat. With idiots like that around you never know exactly whats going to happen.

The club do need stewards at the bars to help control things a little and to help the young girls in the bars - what would have happened if the refused some one drinks or as in this case a fight breaks out in the line. You cant leave those grils on their own to calm things down.

As we were saying at the time - half the problems were bought on by the issue of segregation. I have been going to watch Cas Wakey derbys at both Belle Vue and Wheldon road for about ten years now and from an my perspective i have not seen any real significant trouble at a derby game before. banter yes - a few charged moments but nothing of any great significance.

However as soon as the statement was made about segregating fans and making one end "the home end" you could tell it would cause trouble. Someone said about the 80's football mentality and looking to tear it up. Ask any hooligan or read the books written by a hooloigan of the time and they always say that getting into the home teams end & causing an issue was the aim. Get into the Arsenal noth bank end or the Tottenham Paxman Road stand was what they wanted to do and when in cause as much trouble as possible.

By making an end almost exclusivly for the home team you will invite large group of a teams supporters to congregate in one area and provoke one another. Unless you have a seperate stand which it ticket only you cant stop it - especially in old grounds such as ours.

Allow fans to inter mingle and you naturally disperse large opposing groups - its not guarenteed but it seems to have worked for the last x number of years.

The other thing that all clubs need to do (mine included) is stop people coming into the ground under the infuence. I saw both cas and wakey fans downing bottles of wine literally 15 yards from the turnstyles (exit B i think) who once inside could hardly walk or talk. It would not take a great deal of effort to put a couple of stewards outside the ground - spotters if you like that would refuse entry to such people at the gates. That way all clubs can control the flow of beer once inside.

Like many people, I think the statements re the North stand and 'The city is ours' were interpreted by the mindless minority as provocation and a licence to cause trouble. Most people with more than one brain sell could see it was merely hype used to build up the crowd numbers and in that respect it worked.
With hindsight I believe the statements about the North stand were probably an error. It would have been better if Wakefield supporters had simply followed what many suggested and simply arrived early to claim a spot in the stand.
If you want to segregate supporters have a look at how it's done in soccer, with supporters herded like cattle to the ground and lines of stewards separating them in the ground. Do we want to go down that route? I don't think we do and we certainly couldn't afford to.
If you want to go in the North stand fine, do so, I will and if it means setting off half an hour earlier, so be it.

That is an excellent idea and one that as you say should be employed at all grounds. I would add that the club should have at least shut the bar on the North Stand if not all the bars once the trouble started and certainly once drinks started getting thrown.

That is the best non knee jerk summary I have read. Nothing wrong with marketing the game. Nothing wrong with wanting home fans standing together. But we need a clear plan in advance. Clear to all fans and clubs that visit. Let's also use this opportunity to stamp to stamp out the Loutish behavior that's been going on far too long.

[The other thing that all clubs need to do (mine included) is stop people coming into the ground under the infuence. I saw both cas and wakey fans downing bottles of wine literally 15 yards from the turnstyles (exit B i think) who once inside could hardly walk or talk. It would not take a great deal of effort to put a couple of stewards outside the ground - spotters if you like that would refuse entry to such people at the gates. That way all clubs can control the flow of beer once inside.'"

regarding segregation - there are not many grounds now where there is no segregation between fans. the fans are segregated at all of the "new" stadiums i.e. wigan, hull etc

i can only think of wakefield, cas and bradford where there is no attempt at segregation

(i know that some home fans are allowed in the "away" areas e.g. hull kr and warrington, but if the clubs needed to enforce segregation that could easily be controlled.

Hi Hatfield Tiger,
Many thanks for your support the other night. It was a shame our conversation was interrupted by the antics of that moron. Your insights into development efforts down south were fascinating.
In your post, you make some good points about integration defusing the " us versus them " mentality. Also, I enjoy talking to different people, as most folk have something interesting to say, yourself being a good example ( that's also reason I read these forums regularly: I never stop learning about the game of RL or how it's organised ). What a shame it would be to lose the opportunity to mix with other fans.
W.r.t. The other issues raised, I've contacted the club ( essentially, same content as my post) & await their response, with interest. Will post if anything worthwhile comes out of it.
Take care & hope to see you (& that goes to all true Cas fans) @ Wakey again!