Mark Hughes was only 25 seconds away from another blizzard of questions about his future as Manchester City manager when Robinho popped up to score with almost the last kick of the game yesterday, securing an invaluable draw against Blackburn Rovers.

There have been too many false dawns at City this season to get carried away with a result that lifted the club into thirteenth place in the table, but Richard Dunne, the captain, had a point when he suggested that this could be a turning point for the most unpredictable team in the Barclays Premier League.

With City trailing 2-0 as the game entered the 88th minute, this seemed certain to be an unhappy first return to Ewood Park for Hughes since his departure in the summer and another shot in the arm for Blackburn under Sam Allardyce.

City had come from behind to take something from a game on only one occasion this season – away to Hull City in a 2-2 draw last month, the team they destroyed 5-1 at home on Boxing Day – so their supporters could have been forgiven for fearing the worst, while Blackburn’s fans amused themselves with a lusty rendition of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” to Hughes.

Take a bow, then, Daniel Sturridge. If City are to enjoy an upturn in fortunes during the second half of the season, Hughes may well look to the moment he introduced the 19-year-old striker in the 71st minute.

Jason Roberts had appeared to put the game beyond City’s reach when he doubled Blackburn’s advantage in the 84th minute, but with Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland and Robinho struggling to make an impact, Sturridge grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and in the space of six frantic minutes did more than enough to justify his manager’s willingness to offer the player a lucrative long-term contract.

André Ooijer could only head Robinho’s devilish flick from just outside the penalty area into the path of Sturridge, whose sweeping volley crashed into the bottom corner to make it 2-1. Then, in the dying moments of the game, Sturridge collected the ball wide on the right touchline. There was nothing on, but in an instant, the forward had muscled his way past two Blackburn players before clipping in a dangerous cross.

Blackburn had defended diligently for most of the game, but when it mattered most, they had drifted to sleep, leaving Robinho – who had missed an open net in the eleventh minute when he headed horribly wide – to slot the ball past Paul Robinson.

Sturridge’s contract is up at the end of the season and it is no surprise that Chelsea are monitoring his situation. Hughes can only hope that more of his players show the same kind of character between now and the end of the season.

“Whenever you make substitutions you hope they are going to make a positive impact,” Hughes said. “Daniel is a great young talent. We want to keep him at the club and I think we are very close to concluding it [a new deal].

“For whatever reason the club has allowed him to go into the final year of the contract, but I wouldn’t have allowed that to happen had I been here before the summer. I was as pleased with the qualities we showed today as those we did against Hull two days earlier and I think this could be more telling than the result against Hull.

“Sometimes we struggle because we haven’t got a great physical presence, but today I thought that we dug in and didn’t believe we were beaten.”

For Allardyce, a draw felt like a defeat and keeps his team in the bottom two. The Blackburn manager was disappointed his team failed to take all three points against Sunderland two days earlier after Roberts missed a glorious late chance, but the same player appeared to have won it against City after Benni McCarthy had given the home team the lead, side-footing home after Roberts had nicked the ball away from Dunne.

“I feel like I have had all my presents taken from the bottom of my tree on Christmas morning,” Allardyce said. “In the course of two games we’ve thrown away four points.”

Blackburn (4-4-2): P Robinson 6 A Ooijer 6 C Samba 7 R Nelsen 6 S Warnock 6 B Emerton 7 Tugay Kerimoglu 6 K Andrews 6 M G Pedersen 5 J Roberts 7 B McCarthy 7 Substitutes A Mokoena (for Tugay Kerimoglu, 74min), M Derbyshire (for McCarthy, 85) Not used J Brown, Z Khizanishvili, J Vogel, A Mokoena, K Treacy, M Olsson. Next: Fulham (a).

Man City (4-1-2-3): J Hart 6 P Zabaleta 6 R Dunne 5 N Onuoha 6 M Ball 6 V Kompany 6 S Ireland 5 Elano 5 S Wright-Phillips 5 F Caicedo 5 Robinho 6 Substitutes M Richards 6 (for Onuoha, 64), D Vassell (for Elano, 71), D Sturridge (for Caicedo, 71). Not used K Schmeichel, Jô, J Garrido, G Fernandes. Next: Portsmouth (a)

Referee H Webb Attendance 25,200