Wakefield Wildcats: Hardworking Wakefield zero in on the top eight

The 62-0 drubbing of Wigan Warriors two days ago was Wildcats’ fourth successive win and they are now ninth, trailing eighth-placed Salford only on points difference.

Hat-trick hero Jacob Miller put Wildcats’ amazing resurgence, since before Easter when they were bottom of the table, down to “probably just a little bit of belief” and he insisted: “We always thought we had a team to put some wins together, but until we actually got one – or beat a bigger team – we probably didn’t really believe it.

“But now we do and we are just really working hard for each other. I think that’s the difference. If one person makes an error or misses a tackle we are all working hard to make up for it.”

Wildcats were penalised three times on their own line in the final moments against Wigan, but refused to concede.

The game was long over as a contest at that stage and Miller said: “That was the main chat at half-time.

“We said we don’t care if we don’t score another point, all we wanted was the zero.

“That was the chat for the whole of the second half, just ‘zero, zero, zero’ so it was very pleasing to see that at the end.”

Wakefield, under recently appointed coach Chris Chester, are one of the competition’s in-form teams, but Miller insisted there is no danger of them getting carried away with recent results.

“That won’t be a problem,” he stated. “We understand Wigan weren’t at full-strength. We won’t be complacent, we will be working harder than ever and we really don’t want to be in that bottom four.

We did that last year and it wasn’t fun. We are using that as a driving point to keep getting better. We want to be in the top eight and there’s no reason why we can’t get in there.”

Miller handed most of the credit for his tries against Wigan to his team-mates.

“I started the year a bit slowly, but I am starting to get better,” he said.

“I think it helps when the big boys are going forward and getting off-loads like they are and quick play-the-balls.”

Wildcats take a break from league action on Friday night when they play host to Kingstone Press Championship side Sheffield Eagles in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup.

“They are going to be full of energy and wanting to knock off a Super League team,” Miller warned.

“We have got to make sure we play well and we go out and do a job. We were beaten by a Championship team in the Cup last year and we don’t want it to happen again.”