Darren Bent hopes he has made a point to Paul Lambert after coming off the bench to grab the equaliser in Villa's 1-1 draw with West Brom.
The former Sunderland striker watched from the sidelines as Shane Long put the Baggies ahead before emerging with 20 minutes remaining to score a late equaliser at Villa Park.
Bent has endured a difficult fortnight, first losing the Villa captaincy to defender Ron Vlaar before being left on the bench as the Villains eliminated Manchester City from the Capital One Cup in midweek.
"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."
Bent also remains optimistic that his goalscoring exploits will convince Roy Hodgson to recall him into the England set-up.
"All I can do is keep playing well for Villa and keep scoring the goals, then hopefully I'll be in the squad," he added.
When asked if Bent was upset by his decision to leave him out, Villa boss Paul Lambert said: "No, 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."
Lambert added: "Everyone is as important as anyone else. I explained the captaincy thing was to do (let him focus on) what he did there - to score. That's the only reason I did it.
"I need everyone. If we can keep the collective thing and have the crowd with us, we'll be fine."
Lambert was full of praise for the way his players responded to going behind to a Shane Long goal, particularly after playing 120 minutes against Manchester City in the Capital One Cup in midweek.
He said: "I think it was harsh going behind, especially after the first half.
"The goalkeeper (Ben Foster) has made two world-class saves and when you go behind, especially in a derby, it puts you on the back foot.
"I thought the response was great, especially after playing 120 minutes on Tuesday. It was a big, big ask but the response was excellent."
Baggies boss Steve Clarke was disappointed to concede a late goal but hailed a top-drawer performance from Foster.
The former England player bounced back from his poor performance against Liverpool in midweek with several fine saves.
Clarke said: "Having been in that position I'm a little bit disappointed we didn't go on and win it.
"Obviously, in an away game like this you probably need the second goal just to alleviate a little bit of the late pressure you know is going to come when the ball is going to be in your box a lot.
"But Ben Foster was excellent. I said the other night when he made the mistakes there was nothing to worry about - and he proved that today.
"He's a top goalkeeper and made one save in the first half off the deflected shot which was unbelievable, fantastic.
"You need your goalkeeper to make saves in the Premier League to help you get the points. He's up there with the best of them.
"Compared to some of the other keepers I've worked with Ben may be a little more unorthodox - but he makes the saves just the same.
"I've only known him for 12 weeks but he's been really good for us."
Albion will assess the extent of injuries to skipper Chris Brunt (hamstring) and defender Billy Jones (knee) during the next few days.
