Morning all, did you watch the England match last night? If you didn't, James Milner replaced Ashley Young in the second half, played on the left and in his little time on the pitch, I think he did enough to warrant much more interest.

The thing is, our Ashley was fairly anonymous and in the little time Milner had he made more successful crosses for England than he did for us the whole of last season. The other thing is, Milner was a direct replacement for Young, on the left. Is O'Neill missing a trick?

I want to talk about our Ashley though, as it was his first start for the England team and he just didn't look completely confident, certainly not the way Milner looked when he came on with a little over twenty minutes to go.

He would have learnt a lot and like all things, he will be more confident next time and Milner has played for the U21 side for years so he would have felt a lot more comfortable playing for England and he certainly made an impression picking up his first cap. He created the goal for Defoe that equalised things and there really could have been a couple more from his crosses.

Now, Milner came in for a lot of stick from me last season and I believe it was justified, his crossing was poor, but if it is a case of him playing on the left, which Newcastle had down as his actual position on their website when he played for them, to allow him to pop in quality cross after quality cross week in week out, I'd move him tomorrow.

I'd move him, as I'd prefer Young to sit in he hole anyway, I think a lot of us would. I want Young to play like he did in that match against Everton last season every single game, but it's going to take big decisions from Martin O'Neill, mostly changing from 442 to a variation of 451 and I'm not sure it will happen.

AVFC Blog Fantasy Football League

This is your last chance to register. Tomorrow I'm going to close it down to new registrations so the league starts fair, so if you haven't entered your team click here for the details. This is also your last chance to make as many free substitutions as you want, so if you have registered, now would be a good time to check on your team.

Dinner at Villa Park in aid of Acorns

This dinner is cancelled.

Aston Villa Rumours

I'm just going to summarise what I've read this morning, so we've got something posted but if I've missed anything please post it in the comments below.

First, is the rumour that Reo-Coker is interesting Fulham. This one isn't new new but it's new and gathering pace. IF we get in a player that is going to make it easier for us to play football, an attacking central midfielder shall we say, you could understand why Reo-Coker would like to leave. I think we have nine or ten midfielders at the moment so the lad has to wonder if he is ever going to get a game.

We are also interested in Erik Huseklepp. He played for Norway last night in the hammering of Scotland and apparently Chelsea and Newcastle are also interested. The appeal of Championship football in the North East isn't so appealing for the Brann midfielder so it looks like it is between us and Chelsea, if there is anything in this speculation. We need another central midfielder, so watch this space!