Villa correspondent Brendan McLoughlin explains how it will take more than a missed penalty or two to stop James Milner steppingup to the plate for club or country.

After missing three penalties this year, you might expect taking one at a World Cup to be the last thing James Milner wants to do. But you’d be wrong.

Judging by the Villa and England winger’s style of play, fear is not a word in his vocabulary. In fact, quite the opposite. It’s no wonder Martin O’Neill and Fabio Capello are both huge fans.

Not only does Milner have all the attributes demanded of the modern-day footballer, he possesses admirable old-fashioned qualities like courage and commitment too.

It is for that very reason, despite past penalty failures, he has continued to put himself on the spot.

A miss for England’s under-21s in their European Championship semi-final with Sweden this summer has been followed up with failed attempts for Villa against Cardiff and Bolton. Only one, against Portsmouth, has been successful.

The stakes would be even higher in South Africa next year but Milner, who is preparing for Saturday’s friendly international with Brazil in Doha, is adamant he would be unfazed by the pressure if presented with such a scenario at football’s biggest tournament.

He said: “I’ll definitely be up for taking a penalty at the World Cup. I’ll always put myself forward for penalties.  I know I’ve had a bit of a bad time recently. It is one of those things. It is how you bounce back from that.

“It’s one of those things happening at Villa at the moment. Whoever is taking them, the penalties just don’t seem to be going in. We’ve missed three or four this season.

“But I’ve got confidence and scored a few penalties before this bad run, believe it or not. Everyone has bad runs. It is about how you come through the other side.

“I wouldn’t be put off by the pressure of a World Cup. What prepares you are youth and under-21 tournaments for England and the Premier League. Those are pressure situations anyway.

“I’ve taken a few in the under-21s. In the previous European Championships tournament we went to a penalty shoot-out against Holland and I scored them both.

“Maybe those sort of tournaments are not quite the same in terms of pressure of a World Cup semi-final or final, but it’s having the practice of being in a similar situation.”

Milner has built a reputation for being a versatile player and has even been used by Capello as a left-back, when coming on as substitute in last month’s clash with Belarus at Wembley.

The £12million club record signing hopes being a jack-of-all-trades may give him the edge when the Italian comes to naming his squad for South Africa.

Milner said: “It might help being versatile. There is a lot of competition for places, a lot of quality players. Any little thing that helps you is obviously a good thing.”

The Villa wide man would relish the opportunity to face Brazil.

He said: “You want to play against the best teams and the best players. You watch them as a kid and always dream of playing for England versus Brazil. It is an important preparation fixture for the World Cup.

“It is different opposition and will give you a different type of challenge.”

After PR own-goals during recent European and World Cup campaigns, Milner is well aware that England players need to conduct themselves properly this time around under the watching Capello.

The Villa winger knows the Italian will look at players as much for the way they behave and blend into a squad as their footballing ability.

He said: “Is it important how players fit into a squad for a tournament as well as having footballing ability?  I think that is a massive part of tournament football and I’ve been involved in two under-21 and an under-17s tournament.

“That is the point of the England youth set-up, to give you that experience so, if you are lucky enough to make the step up, you are used to being away from home and things like that.

“The manager is looking at players who will do it on the field – but who are also able to prepare mentally for the games, even though they might be a long way apart, and you are away from home for a long time for a World Cup.

“Things like that, all come into it.”