Milner helps England progress.
James Milner played a big part this afternoon helping England qualify for the last 16 of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
There was a few question marks as to weather Jimmy should of started as many wanted to see Joe Cole start but Fabio Capello went with his instincts and it paid of very well.
Milner got himself a assist when he crossed a fantastic ball across goal for Jermaine Defoe to score the one and only goal of the afternoon.
Many including Sky Sports also gave our very own Jimmy man of the match with them describing him as outstanding.
England finished 2nd in the group after Landon Donavon scored a last minute goal for the USA so they topped the group on goals scored.
Emile Heskey also featured in the game as he came of the bench for the last 10 minutes.
Capello picks Villa trio
Fabio Capello today named James Milner, Stephen Warnock and Emile Heskey in his final 23 man squad that will travel to South Africa this week and try to win the 2010 World Cup.
This is the first time in history that Aston Villa will have three players representing England in the worlds biggest competition.
James Milner was always expected to be included in the squad because of his fantastic season, Capello’s remarks about him and of course how versatile he is.
Emile Heskey isn’t everybody’s cup of tea when it comes to Villa, let alone England but I firmly believe he brings the best out of Wayne Rooney and he will be the player that will win us the World Cup so I’m all for Emile going to South Africa.
The real surprise came when Stephen Warnock was picked instead of Everton’s Leighton Baines. Baines featured in 2 pre-world cup friendlies while Warnock didn’t feature at all and it looked certain that Warnock wouldn’t be going.
Weather we agree with Fabio or not – his squad is picked now and in ten days time we will all stand as one to support our nation.
Here is the squad in full:
Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), David James (Portsmouth), Robert Green (West Ham)
Defenders: Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Ledley King (Tottenham), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham), Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa).
Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Manchester City), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham), James Milner (Aston Villa), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City).
Forwards: Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United).
End of Season Award Winners
It was no surprise when James Milner was last night the big winner at the Aston Villa End of Season Awards bash.
The star who has been in fantastic form was voted Players Player of the Year, Goal of the Season for his strike against Sunderland and the Terrace Trophy which is voted for by the Lions Network.
Terrace Trophy – James Milner
As reported last night on our Facebook page Richard Dunne picked up the Supporters Player of the Season and again it’s no real surprise after his fantastic performances at the heart of the Villa back line.
Supporters Player of the Year – James Milner
Players and Supporters Young Player of the Year went to Nathan Delfouneso for the second season running, while Former Player of the Year went to Former European Cup winning full back Colin Gibson.
And the Young player of the Year is.. James Milner!
James Milner last night succeeded teammate Ashley Young to become the PFA Young Player of the Year for 2010.
Many had tipped Wayne Rooney to walk away with the double, but in the end It was rightly awarded to Milner.
Milner capped of a fantastic day after scoring the winner in the second city derby and then winning the award. He had to beat Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fabregas, and Joe Hart to pick up the award.
He has been praised all season, in particular by manager Martin O’Neill and England manager Fabio Capello even stated he was the most improved player this season.
Villa 0 Chelsea 3 – The Verdict
There’s no point me telling you what happened in yesterdays game as Im sure if you haven’t watched the game, then you would of read about it elsewhere by now.
Apart from the Police, the result and maybe possibly the referee I had another fantastic day out at Wembley and was proud to be one of the 32,400 Aston Villa fans there on the day.
In the end we ran out of steam and you can’t do this against teams like Chelsea, as they proved a few weeks ago at Stamford Bridge.
Never the less, I am proud of the lads for getting to Wembley twice in one season, I’m proud at them for how they really gave it a go yesterday and maybe, just maybe If a few decisions went our way we could of been going back for a third time.
Now we must learn from our experience’s and build on this for the rest of the season, and then next and I have a feeling despite this loss hurting the players we will learn a great deal from them.
Apart from the game yesterday I will have a moan about the local forces on patrol yesterday evening after the game. Especially in and around the Green Man Hotel. These are the people we pay our taxes to protect us and there behaviour yesterday was a absolutely disgrace.
They caused trouble amongst local people and Aston Villa fans when neither were doing anything wrong apart from waiting to get back to there homes or back on there coaches.
They say football hooliganism is going away? To be honest I don’t think the Police want this to happen.
