It would be foolhardy to describe footballers earning anything up to £50,000 a week as sacrificial lambs, but while Mark Hughes was throwing cash around like confetti this summer, there was an unceremonious cull taking place behind the scenes at Manchester City.

For every signing, two players had to leave, the unwanted remnants of the regimes of Sven-Göran Eriksson, Stuart Pearce and, in the cases of Richard Dunne and Danny Mills, Kevin Keegan, whose presence last night as a pundit for ESPN was a pointed reminder of unhappier times at a club now gorging itself on Arab billions. In all, a dozen were shipped out, discounting those sent on loan, although if Hughes, the manager, had had his way, it might have been more.

For the unloved who were left to rot a little longer, life at City offered none of the promise it did to those players amassed at great fortune, just the harsh reality that their route to the first team would forever seem blocked by someone that bit better and more expensive.

Martin Petrov could have been forgiven for feeling like that. The Bulgaria winger was touted for a move to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer, but when that failed to materialise, months on the sidelines beckoned. With Craig Bellamy and Robinho ahead of him in the pecking order, what chance did he stand of forcing his way in?

Petrov often gives the impression of being a gloomy individual, but rather than sulk, he seems to have taken up Hughes’s challenge to prove that he is worthy of inclusion.

His performance last night, when he started for the first time this season, was the embodiment of industry and invention and could not have failed to make Hughes take notice, even if the player’s celebration after putting City 2-1 up was intended to do just that.

Turning his back to the dugout and pointing with both hands to the name on his shirt, this was Petrov’s way of reminding the manager of his talent. And it may just have worked.

“He was a really positive influence on the game, which is what we need,” Hughes said. “When opportunities present themselves you have to be able to make an impact. That is what Martin did.”