Milner secures Villa victory with crucial goal : Wigan 1-2 Aston Villa

WIGAN ATHLETIC 1
- Caldwell 27

ASTON VILLA 2
- McCarthy (og) 25,
- Milner 63

**James Milner underlined his England World Cup credentials by netting the winner as Aston Villa enhanced their Champions League aspirations with a 2-1 victory at Wigan Athletic.

For Wigan the table makes much more depressing reading. The home team when James McCarthy put through his own net in and Chris Kirkland blundered for the second Villa goal.

Wigan who started brightly, but they only had to wait two minutes to find the leveller. N'Zogbia sent in a terrific in-swinging ball that evaded the Villa defenders and found Gary Caldwell eluded Richard Dunne at the back post, the Scottish defender not hesitating from five yards out to head his side level.

With the game continuing to be so open someone had to score again and that proved to be the case when Villa found the back of the net on 63rd minute.

The last of which was not cleared properly by Latics 'keeper Kirkland who pushed the ball away only for it to find Milner on the edge of the box. The midfielder then turned and drove a left-foot shot that went pat a crowd of bodies and into the back of the net. 2-1.

Team Line-ups:

Wigan: Kirkland, Boyce, Caldwell, Bramble, Figueroa, Thomas, McCarthy, Diame, N'Zogbia, Moreno, Rodallega. Subs: Stojkovic, Amaya, Scharner, Scotland, Moses, Gomez, Sinclair.

Aston Villa: Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Downing, Milner, Petrov, Ashley Young, Agbonlahor, Carew. Subs: Guzan, Luke Young, Sidwell, Delfouneso, Delph, Heskey, Beye.