It was a little under a year ago when Fabio Capello, to widespread surprise, singled out one of the few Englishmen in Aston Villa's squad who had yet to win a senior cap for special praise. "The player I like is Milner. He's the future, my future," the Italian said. If James Milner felt like a strange choice at the time, he seems an obvious one now. "Phenomenal" was Martin O'Neill's description of the 23-year-old's display against Hull City.
The man-of-the-match champagne will be of little use to a player who has no intention of touching a drop of alcohol until his career is over, but the performance that earned the prize is sure to encourage Capello. Having shifted inside to take up a central midfield berth, Milner provided another example of his remarkable versatility as he excelled in his new role, setting up Villa's first goal with a sublime pass to Richard Dunne and scoring the second with a delightful lob.
It was his fifth goal of a campaign that has exceeded all expectations ever since he appeared as a substitute against Holland in August and created England's equaliser. At that point Milner was one of a number of players on the periphery of the England set-up and unlikely to go to South Africa, but it is a measure of his progress this season that O'Neill claimed that if the World Cup finals were taking place next month he would be certain to be in Capello's squad. "If the England manager is picking a squad, he is going to have outright centre-forwards and outright defenders and quality midfielders to choose from," said the Villa manager. "But if you're going to have a squad and you look at some player who actually has the versatility to play in a number of positions, and not just fitting in there, but actually make a contribution, which I think is outstanding, that's where James at this moment is definitely scoring points.
"He's played twice for us in [central midfield] now and not only has he been brilliant in the matches, he has also scored in both," continued O'Neill. "The great thing about it against Hull was that James made a lot of things go through him. He always wanted to receive the ball and make things happen. The pass for Richard Dunne was really top drawer. If that had been played by, for instance, Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard you would have said that was magnificent."
Dunne's finish carried less finesse as the central defender crashed the ball into the roof of the net to give Villa belated reward for their early dominance. Milner's goal, brilliantly lifted over the retreating Hull defence after the goalkeeper, Matt Duke, had been caught out following a quick throw-in that was aided by the substitute Steve Sidwell's sharp thinking, doubled Villa's lead before John Carew added a late third from the penalty spot.
This was a chastening defeat for Hull although it was the prospect of losing Jimmy Bullard for an extended spell, rather than the end of their four-match unbeaten run, that preoccupied the minds of those heading back to Humberside. Bullard, who has undergone cruciate ligament surgery on his right knee twice in the past three years, left the pitch in tears after falling awkwardly on his left knee and is expected to have a scan today to ascertain the full extent of the damage.
Villa, in contrast, could hardly be in better shape. This win lifted them to fifth position in the Premier League and with a two-legged Carling Cup semi-final against Blackburn Rovers to come in the new year it was easy to imagine the players being in buoyant mood on their Christmas party last night. Not that Milner will have been getting carried away of course. "He doesn't drink but he still enjoys himself," O'Neill said. Surely not as much as he did against Hull.
