Versatile Milligan pleased with Socceroos’ showing

Caltex Socceroo Mark Milligan said playing in central defence against England's lighting fast strikers was not a problem for him despite not having played in that position for some time.

Speaking after England beat the Socceroos 2-1 on Friday night in Sunderland, the UAE based defender and midfielder said wherever he’s needed, he’ll play.

Caltex Socceroos go down to England

Analysis: England v Caltex Socceroos

“I’ve filled in every now and then but it’s been about five years since I’ve started a game at centre back – probably when I was on loan at Victory,” he told reporters after the game.

Mark Milligan.

“It wasn’t too bad. Obviously with the ball I’m more comfortable, it’s just more the positioning side of things, my starting points and things like that.

“But we have some very good staff who had some videos for me. So I don’t think it was too bad and Bailey’s [Wright] is excellent to play next to.

“Plenty of chatter from him and Maty behind me which made life easier.”

But the speed of the English strikers certainly caught his eye. 

England look like they’ll have goals in them at June's Euros after the displays of Wayne Rooney, Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford.

“I don’t think you’ll find a couple of quicker players,” he joked when asked about the City and United strikers.

England's Marcus Rashford fights for the ball with Socceroos midfielder Mark Milligan.

“We set up to sort of nullify those threats hopefully before they happen. 

"So myself and Bayls [Wright] we were nice and tight on Rashford and Sterling, which I think in the first half we didn’t give them much joy.”

Milligan conceded both teams were generally at different ends of the fitness scale, which showed on Friday night in Sunderland. 

"We had boys who hadn't played for six, seven weeks. So we'll try to take the positives and look at the things we didn't do great." 

The Baniyas player added: “We wanted to control the match, play through the lines and be nice and positive and for the most part we did that." 

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