James Milner has praised the spirit, determination and talent of Aston Villa’s young players despite their 4-1 FA Cup defeat to Liverpool.
Villa had to field a team of U23 and U18 players for Friday’s third round tie after the entire first-team squad, manager Dean Smith and his first-team coaching staff were forced to self-isolate following an outbreak of Covid-19 at the club’s training ground.
It meant U23 coach Mark Delaney took charge of a youthful side that had an average age of just 18 years and 294 days.