James Milner is hoping that the international break can help 'refresh' Aston Villa in time for their next big date - against Birmingham City at St Andrew's a week on Sunday, writes Ged Scott.

Newcastle United's on-loan England Under-21 winger is one of nine Villa men who played in yesterday's 3-2 home defeat in squads to play for their country in the next week or so.

But he says that a break from their club environment after a fourth defeat in eight Premiership matches could be just what they need to help inspire them for this season's first Second City derby.

"I'm just hoping we come back refreshed from the internationals and have a real good go at Birmingham," he said.

"I know it's a massive game and there's a massive rivalry. I also know they're a good team. But we need to start pushing on and putting some points on the board.

"There's nothing wrong with the team spirit here. We just need to be as one. We need to stick together, and defend together as a team all the way through from the front lads to the back but we also know we're making too many mistakes. At this level, you can't afford to do that.

"Obviously, you're going to miss the ones we've got out and it's not easy when you're not playing with the same players every week. But, with the squad we've got, we shouldn't miss them that much. Look at the way Luke Moore has come in and scored two in two games and looked very sharp.

"We've got a great squad, a great set of players and we just need to piece it all together.

"Every club has a sticky patch through the season and hopefully this is ours. Since I've been here, we've had some good spells in most of the games but the lads are still disappointed after this defeat as we know we can play better than that, especially at home.

"It's a fine line and we need a bit of luck but it's just not happening for us. Things didn't quite click before the break, but we came out and played a bit better in the second half. We got the goal and I thought we'd go on and win it."

Milner joins Liam Ridgewell in the England Under-21 squad this week, along with on- loan midfielder Peter Whittingham, who is at Derby County.

While Northern Ireland skipper Aaron Hughes misses his country's meeting with Wales, Steven Davis is Belfast-bound and Welshman Mark Delaney will join him tonight if he comes through his third reserve-team comeback game at Bolton.

Also absent are Olof Mellberg ( Sweden), Thomas Sorensen (Denmark), Wilfred Bouma ( Holland), Eric Djemba-Djemba (Cameroon), Juan Pablo Angel (Colombia) and Ulises De La Cruz ( Ecuador). Milan Baros has missed Villa's last two matches with an Achilles problem but is expected to report fit for the Czech Republic.