Venables heaps praise on Milner

Milner (right) became the Premiership's youngest scorer

Leeds boss Terry Venables believes James Milner has the right attitude to thrive in the Premiership after the 16-year-old wrote his name in the record books against Sunderland.

Milner became the youngest player to score in the Premiership at 16 years 357 days, beating the milestone set by Everton striker Wayne Rooney just two months ago by only four days.

That was probably our best all-round attacking performance since I arrived

Sunderland boss
Howard Wilkinson

Milner was brought on by Venables soon after Michael Proctor had given Sunderland a 33rd-minute lead with his second goal in three games.

And the teenager hauled his side level in the 50th minute with a poacher's strike from six yards before Robbie Fowler's 80th-minute penalty gave Leeds all three points.

Match report: Sunderland 1-2 Leeds

"I am very pleased with him," said Venables of right winger Milner.

"He is growing in this group and he has taken advantage of every day's training to show what he can do.

"He has two good feet, he is courageous and everyone likes him a lot. He also is not only a nice, solid, good, well-mannered boy, he is a very talented player.

"It's early days for the boy. At the moment he has not achieved anything and he is the first to admit that.

"But I think a lot of people are confident about his development. We have just got to take it easy."

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Leeds have now taken six points from the last two matches to ease the pressure on Venables.

He added: "It was a courageous and gritty three points. We knew they would come at us and they were very direct and put us under a lot of pressure.

"We had Jonathan Woodgate drop out with an injury and it meant I had to jiggle things around yesterday, so all in all I was very pleased with what we did."

Kevin Phillips missed a host of chances

Sunderland striker Kevin Phillips had a catalogue of chances to comfortably give the Black Cats a deserved victory.

But he had a header hit the crossbar and he saw three other opportunities superbly saved by Leeds keeper Paul Robinson, while another couple were dragged past the woodwork.

However, Sunderland boss and former Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson was encouraged.

"That was probably our best all-round attacking performance since I arrived," he said.

"We have created chances, looked threatening and looked as if we wanted to play. As for Kevin, he has had more chances than in any of the games since he came back from injury.

"On Saturday he had four or five and scored twice, yet today he had more chances than that, but couldn't score.

"But undoubtedly it was Kevin's best performance. I think he - touch wood - has turned the corner, with the injury now a distant memory."