Villa and England winger James Milner has apologised to supporters for his sub-standard showing in Sunday’s Second City showdown.

The England international has otherwise enjoyed a fine start to the new campaign, being Villa’s most consistent player and coming off the bench to help his country thrash Croatia 5-1 and seal World Cup qualification last Wednesday.

But the £12million club record signing conceded his “radar was off” in Sunday’s 1-0 derby victory over Birmingham at St Andrew’s, after spurning some decent opportunities and seeing a number of passes go astray.

And the former Newcastle and Leeds player is confident it will just be a one-off, and insisted he will never hide in a game even when the chips are down.

While disappointed with his display, Milner was delighted to follow up success with his country with more of the same for his club.

He said: “I think there was something wrong with the radar. Things don’t always go your way, like against Birmingham, and a few passes can go astray but you can’t hide, because that won’t do you any good.

“You’ve just got to keep going on and trust your ability and that’s what I try to do.

“It’s been a fantastic week with two big games and two right results. The way we did things for England was great and it was brilliant to come to Birmingham and win the game.”

It was Milner’s second victory as a Villa player at St Andrew’s. He was on loan when they defeated Blues in October 2005.