Darren Bent came off the bench to give Aston Villa a deserved point in a 1-1 draw against West Midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion in Sunday's only English Premier League game.
Paul Lambert preferred Christian Benteke and Gabriel Agbonhahor up front to the England international striker, but just 11 minutes after coming on in the second half, Bent struck the equalizer with ten minutes left in the game.
Earlier, Shane Long has scored the opening goal for the Baggies in the 51st minute, with the away side seemingly on their way to yet another win, before Bent's intervention.
West Brom maintained their great start to the season with 11 points from six games, while Villa have five.
Bent admitted his disappointment at not being given a start, but was happy to score the goal that ensured at least a point for the home side. "Obviously it would have been nice to play from the start but I managed to score the goal to get a point," he told Sky Sports.
"It's obviously been a difficult couple of weeks, losing the captaincy first off then finding out I wasn't playing today. But we battled all the way through and we got the point.
"The start of the season's been up and down, obviously we had a good result against Swansea but then we got beaten 4-1 by Southampton before getting a great result against Manchester City.
"Today we showed signs that we are heading in the right direction and we've all got faith in the manager."
Villa manager Paul Lambert hailed Bent's "great" contribution. "Darren's a big part of (this squad) -- everybody knows he's a goalscorer," Lambert said. "I decided on the lads up front but I don't value anybody higher than anybody else. To do well we need everybody.
"He was great. There was no problem. I just named the team and that's the team I picked.
"It was a world-class substitution! I need everyone, it's a collective thing, I never look at individuals. The goal was brilliant, it was a world-class finish.
"He was fine at full-time. I spoke to him in the dressing room as well. He was totally fine, totally, no problem, none."
West Brom manager Steve Clark was reasonably happy with the result, despite conceding a late equalizer. "I think it's a good result," he said. "We came here expecting a difficult game and that's what we got.
"We're disappointed because we went ahead in the second half and controlled the game for a good spell. We then created a few half-chances for the second goal but we were pegged back and it finished 1-1.
"We're a little bit disappointed, the players are disappointed in the dressing room because we didn't get the three points.
"Overall I think we have to be happy with our efforts because, having been disrupted a little bit with injuries, the team performance was really good."