Aston Villa star wants to help West Brom pal

Sep 9 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

“I watched it,” said Milner, who is likely to be on the bench tonight.

“Scott played and I’m good friends with him so it was great to see him play.

“He made a great save as well which gets forgotten because of a couple of mistakes, but I remember it. I watched it at home with my family I think.

“You support your country whether you’re playing or not or whether you’re still coming through.

“It was disappointing and hopefully we can get them back for that result tonight.”

Having won his first senior caps in last month’s friendly draw in Holland and Saturday’s Wembley warm-up win over Slovenia, Milner hopes his first competitive contribution will be to help seal early World Cup qualification tonight.

“First of all we have to qualify,” he added. “We have to do a job against Croatia.

“If we do qualify it will be brilliant. Everyone wants to play in a World Cup for England and I’m no different.”