If the cap fits Berti Vogts can't ignore Kenny Miller any longer

KENNY MILLER has opted to wear his bobble hat indoors but then, having only ever received one cap, perhaps he is starting to feel protective about his headwear. The rain is teaming down outside Molineux, just like the press enquiries that have also been flooding in for him ahead of today's FA Cup quarter-final against Southampton at St Mary's, but once ushered on to matters closer to home, the player confides that he still has some points to prove back in Scotland.

Miller may or may not be the genuine article just yet, but the 23- year-old Wolves striker believes Hibs, Rangers and Scotland fans only got a small glimpse of his abilities. "You can always improve on every aspect in football, but I think my all-round game is already 20 times better than it was at Rangers," said Miller, looking noticeably brawnier than the slimline lad who left Hibs in the summer of 2000. Berti Vogts, who has yet to give Miller competitive action, surely can't ignore him for the double header against Iceland and Lithuania at the end of this month after the striker compounded his rich scoring form with a hat-trick against Crystal Palace last week.

The bald statistics are starting to bear such claims out, even if those long years of underachievement at Molineux seem to have bred a culture of navel-gazing. The route to the famous old ground's inner sanctum, after all, takes in iconography of the club's glorious past epitomised by the statue of Billy Wright, while recent squandered chances to clinch promotion are summed up only by an oily portrait of benefactor Sir Jack Hayward in front of a union flag. Yet it is still jarring to see the club's hope for the future coming in the form of the photo of the fresh-faced 23-year-old from Edinburgh given pride of place at the top of the stairs. Locals are wondering if Miller is the new Steve Bull.

For the time being that remains a lot of bull, but with 18 goals already this season, the Scotsman has certainly blown some cobwebs from the place. If the strikes have taken the club into sixth position in the Nationwide Division One and a play-off spot, it has also meant his claims for further Scotland appearances are starting to become irresistible. "To be honest it has been disappointing that I have only got one cap," Miller said. "But all I have to do is keep playing the way I am and scoring goals, then hopefully I will keep my place. It's good if people have been saying nice things about me. The coverage people in Scotland seem to get of Wolves is pretty much non- existent."

Miller's only appearance to date was as a second-half substitute in the friendly draw against Poland under Craig Brown. In addition to an outing for the Future team against Germany in Mainz, Miller was, of course, included for the recent international friendly defeat against Ireland, but did what his club manager Dave Jones terms a "75- minute warm-up" before ending the game as an unused substitute. Not that such a wasted journey and lack of communication taints his belief that the German is doing a good job.

"There are probably not many other people who have got a better cv than him so I think he is the right man for the job," Miller said, "and I think Berti has started to turn the corner in terms of young players in the Scottish team. He has never spoken to me about my game, but there is nothing he could really say anyway. Having been on the bench against Ireland it would be great to actually play. I am just begging to keep my place in the squad."

The Scotland manager has other attacking options to accommodate, but Miller's goalscoring burst should come as little surprise. At Rangers his record of 11 goals from 18 starts was no disgrace. Not that it gave him more chances under Dick Advocaat.

"I'm not bitter about what happened at Rangers," Miller said. "There were maybe seven or eight strikers when I was there and I was bottom of the pecking order. Obviously, when I went I thought I had a real hope of playing and thought I was good enough to make an impact, but it just never turned out as well as I thought it would. It would've been great if I had got a chance there and, if I had, I never would have wanted to leave. Rangers are a massive club, but I never thought moving to Wolves was a step down. The First Division is as good if not a better standard than the SPL."

Miller has also endured his troubled times at Wolverhampton, after he broke his collarbone in only the third game of an initial loan spell. When he was left out upon his return, he didn't take it too well. "I just hate sitting on the bench," he said.

His manager certainly needs no convincing as to his credentials to make a mark at the very highest level, along with the rest of his Scottish contingent, Colin Cameron and Alex Rae. "He is a goalscoring striker and he's playing, and that is exactly what Berti Vogts needs at the moment," Jones said. "If he doesn't play against Iceland again I will be quite happy as he will stay fresh, but if he does play I will be happy as well because it is good to get him involved at international level."