Video- Wakefield 20 Warrington 40: Miller’s star continues to rise but Wildcats stumble

Miller was released by Hull at the end of last season and struggled to make an impact at Wakefield when James Webster was in charge, but has been their form player since Smith arrived last month.

He inspired victory over Hull in Wakefield’s previous home game and scored all but two of their points – a conversion from Craig Hall after Miller had missed with three of four previous attempts - in yesterday’s 40-20 loss.

Miller’s only previous senior hat-trick came in the round two home win over Hull KR five months ago.

Miller’s first and third tries yesterday were short-range efforts from acting-half. But for his second he displayed pace and footwork from 20 metres out and the last came when he broke the line, kicked ahead and dabbed the ball down.

Wakefield never looked like winning, despite Miller’s efforts, but it was a huge improvement from the 80-0 away loss to Warrington in April.

Simple errors and some naive defence proved costly for the home team, but Wakefield hit back a number of times when Warrington looked to be taking full control and they are taking steps forward under Smith.

The Australian has been in charge for five games and though they have won only once, they have been competitive in all of them and yesterday was the first time they have conceded 40 or more points; something they did in 10 of their previous 11 Super League games before Smith arrived.

Wakefield were without a number of senior players, including Tim Smith, Ian Kirke and Ali Lauitiiti, who will be available when they defend their Super League status in the Qualifiers, beginning next month.

Wakefield’s boss was up against his younger brother Tony for the first time in their head-coaching career and his team had the upper hand for most of the game, despite missing 10 players through injury or suspension.

Warrington took the lead after just seven minutes when Chris Hill found a gap and Stefan Ratchford was in support to cross, with Gareth O’Brien landing the first of six conversions.

Then came the first of Wakefield’s expensive errors, Jordan Tansey fielding a kick near his own line and spilling the ball as he looked to offload. Joe Philbin, who made the initial kick, reacted quickly to touch down.

That made it 12-0 on 13 minutes and earlier in the season a start like that could have led to a spectacular collapse, but Wakefield dug in and Miller’s first try soon afterwards cut the gap to 12-6 before poor defence allowed Matty Russell to force his way over from an offload by Ben Westwood.

Westwood began his career at Wakefield and his team-mate Ryan Atkins is also a former Wildcats player. Atkins set up a try for Westwood by stealing the ball from Kevin Locke close to the home team’s line.

Miller scored either side of the break, but 22-14 was as close as Wildcats got. Daryl Clark’s try gave Warrington some breathing space on 56 and in the next set Richie Myler finished off from Brad Dwyer’s break.

Myler’s fourth came with 12 minutes left, but Warrington had the final say when Russell scored his second with a couple of minutes remaining.

“Wakefield have come a long way since we last played them,” Wolves boss Tony Smith said.

“They have a whole different mindset and they’re working hard for each other.

“Whoever is going to come up against them in the next phase need to be good because the bottom team’s pretty good now,” he added.

Wakefield Wildcats: Locke, Tansey, Arundel, Lyne, Riley, Hall, Miller, Scruton, McShane, Kavanagh, Ashurst, Washbrook, Annakin. Substitutes: Anderson, Ryan. Sio, Walker.

Warrington Wolves: Russell, Ormsby, Wheeler, Atkins, Penny, O’Brien, Myler, Hill, Clark, Harrison, Westwood, Philbin, Ratchford. Substitutes: Dwyer, Asotasi, King., Wilde.

Referee: P Bentham (Warrington).