Aston Villa: James Milner fires warning ahead of tough week for Villa

Feb 13 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

“Now it’s down to us to keep putting in the performances but we can’t get carried away. Things can change very quickly.”

Milner has mixed emotions about Newcastle’s double knock-out in 2005. He enjoyed getting to the last four of the FA Cup and last eight of the UEFA Cup.

And Villa’s £12million record signing is relishing the opportunity to try to take his new club all the way to glory in both cup competitions.

But the 23-year-old Yorkshireman admits it was frustrating to get so near and yet so far and for their hopes to be dashed in such a short amount of time.

“I reached the FA Cup semi-final with Newcastle,” added Milner.

“We went to Cardiff and lost to Manchester United.

“That was a tough few days because we went out of the UEFA Cup at the quarter-final stage.

“I remember we played the Thursday in Lisbon and we were winning quite comfortably with 20 minutes to go, but they scored two late goals and we went out.

“We flew straight to Cardiff, played the semi-final that weekend and lost that too.

“Those experiences make you stronger. I have been to a semi-final and hopefully we can go as far as that, but we will take it a game at a time.”