‘Nice to get off the mark’: James Milner on the Liverpool scoresheet in friendly win

James Milner scored the winner 15 minutes from time after Adam Lallana earlier equalised in a comeback win for Liverpool on Friday against Brisbane Roar of the A-League.

Liverpool's James Milner celebrates after scoring the winner on Friday against Brisbane Roar in a pre-season friendly in Australia. Jason O'Brien / Action Images / Reuters / July 17, 2015

England midfielder James Milner scored the winner in his first start for Liverpool as the Premier League club overcame Brisbane Roar 2-1 on their pre-season tour of Asia and Australia on Friday.

The 29-year-old, who moved to Anfield on a free transfer from Manchester City at the start of the month, found the net 15 minutes from time to cap a fine performance and help his new club come from behind for the win.

“It’s nice to get off the mark, it’s important that we put in a performance early in our pre-season,” Milner said.

“It was a good test for us tonight, they’re a good team and they gave us exactly what we needed at this stage of the pre-season.

“The amount of time spent together on tour, 24 hours a day, especially for myself and the other new boys to get to know the rest of the lads and the more we play together we can build those relationships on and off the field.”

Liverpool might have thought themselves at home when the crowd of more than 50,000 at Lang Park gave a stirring pre-match rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” on a chilly evening more typical of Merseyside than tropical Queensland.

Brisbane were not about to play stooges, however, and opened the scoring in the 17th minute when Dimitri Petratos took two touches on the edge of the box before drilling the ball inside the post.

Milner and another new signing, Danny Ings, both had chances to equalise before Adam Lallana got the visitors back on level terms in the 27th minute.

It was Milner’s cross which found Lallana on the left side of the box and the midfielder beat his defender with a deft touch of his left foot before curling the ball into the net with his right.

Brisbane, Australia’s champions for three of the last five years, kept their shape as Liverpool pressed forward in search of a winner after the break and it required a neat piece of skill from Milner to break the deadlock.

Taking the ball on the edge of the penalty area, he nutmegged one defender before looping his shot over the legs of a couple more to beat the Brisbane goalkeeper.

“James Milner’s a class act,” manager Brendan Rodgers said. “We had to work very hard to get him in but I think we’ll see over the course of the season how important he is for us.

“He’s a wonderful personality and a top class footballer. When you see him play in his favourite position, you see all these qualities come out.”

“We wanted more goals from midfield and when you see James, that was the idea,” Rodgers added.

“Because you see when he plays in the central area he really penetrates the box. He’s a top class operator and I think in this team he’ll probably shine even more.

“He’s going to be huge for us and working closely with him I can really see why he is really regarded as a top class professional.”

A victory courtesy of goals from two midfielders is unlikely to dampen the desire of Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers to secure the services of an out-and-out striker like reported target Christian Benteke.

The Belgian has two years remaining on his deal at Aston Villa but British media have reported Liverpool, flush with cash after the sale of Raheem Sterling, are negotiating a payout of a £32.5 million (Dh186.5m) release clause.

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