Geoff Miller insists there is no friction between himself and Michael Vaughan over the captain's comments following England's Headingley hammering.

Miller and fellow selectors Peter Moores, James Whitaker and Ashley Giles met in the wake of South Africa's 10-wicket victory in the Second Test, then the head of the panel went alone to see Vaughan.

Vaughan's post-match remarks suggesting his team lacked unity at Leeds, and that the controversial choice of Darren Pattinson to replace back injury victim Ryan Sidebottom caused confusion, clearly concerned Miller as well as claims that no-one in England's hierarchy wanted to be held responsible.

But national selector Miller insists there has been no falling out.

"I fully understand what Michael was saying and, as people will appreciate, things can be taken out of context," said Miller. "But it's all cleared up and we move on, which we've got to do.

"The selectors sat down to analyse the last Test - and there were a lot of things to analyse - and to discuss what we are going to try to do at Edgbaston next week. Michael was not involved in that meeting [because he's not a selector] so I wanted to have a chat with him, on my own, to clarify everything.

"There's no friction at all between Michael and the selectors."

Picking the almost unknown Anglo-Aussie Pattinson ahead of Matthew Hoggard or Steve Harmison led to England being widely criticised.

But Miller continues to defend both Pattinson and the thinking that earned him a Test debut.

He said: "We are held responsible, and I am held responsible, for the decisions [to first put Pattinson on stand-by for injury doubt Jimmy Anderson and then play him ahead of Chris Tremlett when Sidebottom failed his fitness test]. And they were made with the right intentions."

Miller also reiterated his belief that Pattinson was the 'form horse' among swing bowlers outside the original squad and did not let anyone down at Headingley when judged against the performances of England's other bowlers.

"Now we've got to go again and pick a squad for Edgbaston," said Miller. "You can't dwell on Headingley. It's gone, and we have to move on and sort something out for the next Test."

Despite the debate over Pattinson's inclusion at Headingley, it was England's first innings batting which put South Africa on the road to victory.

Vaughan's men were not helped by the conditions, and had a couple of important decisions go against them, but being bowled out for 203 last Friday did the real damage.

That collective failure should be enough to dissuade England from repeating their decision to play only five front-line batsmen next Wednesday. But if it isn't, then either Andrew Flintoff must bat at No6 or the selectors will need to replace Tim Ambrose with his wicketkeeping predecessor, Matt Prior.

Much more likely is the reintroduction of Paul Collingwood at No6 with Warwickshire's Ambrose dropping down two places to a more comfortable No8 on his home ground.