Milner on the mess

Having buried a brace for Stuart Pearce`s under 21s in midweek, James Milner was experiencing the other end of the spectrum as he saw his return to Villa Park blighted by the team`s rank awful performance. Milner commented:

"That`s football. Things change very quickly, and it`s about how you deal with it. Games come quickly and fast, and you`ve just got to pick yourself up. We`ll work hard this week, and make sure we`re ready for the next game.

It looked OK after the first-half performance. We started well, but two quick goals killed us at the start of the second half. They were always going to cause us problems at home. They`ve got a lot of good players, and pace and strength up front, which we never really dealt with, especially in the second half. They put Harewood on, who has a huge physical presence, and we never really dealt with that threat.

At the moment we`re not performing for 90 minutes. In the Premier League, if you don`t put it in for the majority of the game, you`re going to get punished. We`re playing well for 45 minutes or an hour, but not for 15 minutes here or there, and you can`t do that. You`re obviously going to have blips where you`re going to be under the cosh, but it`s about making sure we keeping working for 90 minutes."