The midfielder - who led the line for Newcastle United in last night's Carling Cup win over Coventry City - could literally be worth his weight in goals.

Milner weighed in with one goal, and on another night would have left the field with the match ball.

And it's also no wonder Keegan is desperate to tie Michael Owen down to a new long-term contract at St James's Park.



Just four days after scoring the only goal of the game against Bolton Wanderers, Owen came off the bench to strike Newcastle's extra-time winner and book the club a place in the third round of a competition which has always promised United much, and delivered little.

Should this be the club's year in the Carling Cup, then Keegan and his players will no doubt look back on this remarkable game and shake their heads.

With his team 2-0 up and seemingly cruising towards the half-time break thanks to an own goal from Scott Dann and Milner's effort, there was little hint of the drama to come.

Instead, Newcastle's 3,000 travelling fans had been marvelling at their side's best attacking display of the campaign so far, with Milner, Charles N'Zogbia and Jonas Gutierrez having torn the home defence to shreds.

Milner - once the Premiership's youngest goalscorer after finding the net against Sunderland as a 16-year-old - was revelling in his role as a makeshift striker, with Gutierrez playing off him.

Aston Villa - the club which has long coveted Milner, and is understood to have had a bid rejected for the 22-year-old this summer - were represented at the Ricoh Arena, and the winger's performance will have only served to harden their resolve to take him to Villa Park.

Milner was everywhere, and so was Gutierrez, as United threatened to overwhelm their hosts.

The Sky Blues just couldn't get hold of the ball, let alone get it up the pitch, and Shay Given was a virtual spectator for long periods.

Newcastle, however, never do things the easy way, and maybe it was going just too swimingly.

Clinton Morrison, who had hardly touched the ball, struck a superb goal in first-half injury time to give Chris Coleman's side hope going into the second-half.

Keegan's men never quite hit the heights they had in the first half, and when Aron Gunnarsson limbered up to take another long throw into United's box deep in injury time there will have been a few in black and white at the opposite end of the stadium who turned away, fearing the worst.

I know I almost did, and Dann atoned for his earlier own goal with a late, late equaliser. Too late, in fact.

Referee Tony Bates had added two minutes, yet Dann struck three-and-a-half minutes into injury time. You do the math.

A game which had looked all but over in the first half after Milner had sent Newcastle into a 2-0 lead was now anyone's going into an extra half hour.

But there is only one Michael Owen, and thankfully - for the time being at least - he is a Newcastle United player.