[3] However, his career nearly came to a halt at the age of 17 when he had to start working full-time as an ASDA delivery driver to support himself financially, and only played snooker as a hobby.

Wakelin had a tough debut season as a professional as he lost his opening match in all the ranking tournaments aside from the UK Championship, where he defeated 22nd seed Ryan Day 6–5 before losing by the same scoreline to Jamie Burnett in the subsequent round.

[6] He had better results in the minor-ranking European Tour events, reaching the last 32 of the Rotterdam Open before going all the way to the quarterfinals of the Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup, where he lost 4–2 to Judd Trump.

He beat Tom Ford 5–2 to qualify for the 2014 Wuxi Classic and in his first appearance in a ranking event outside of the UK he overcame Joe O'Connor 5–2, before losing 5–2 to Shaun Murphy.

[9] At the minor-ranking Ruhr Open, Wakelin overcame Matthew Stevens 4–1 and then fought back from 3–0 and needing two snookers in the deciding frame to beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4–3.

[9] At the Indian Open, Wakelin beat Rhys Clark 4–2, Andrew Pagett 4–1 and Nigel Bond 4–1 to play in the quarter-finals of a ranking event for the first time.

[13] Wakelin saw off Alex Taubman 5–1, Craig Steadman 5–0 and Liam Highfield 5–2 to reach the final qualifying round of the Australian Goldfields Open, but lost 5–3 to Jamie Jones.

[15] Wakelin beat Matthew Stevens 6–5 on the final black in the first round of the UK Championship and apologized to his opponent for an exuberant celebration at the end in a win he described as one of his best.