Alan Hutton was delighted to be part of Aston Villa's opening day win at Stoke City.
The defender was frozen out at Villa last season by manager Paul Lambert.
Hutton could have become bitter, but instead is determined only to look forward and kick his Premier League career back into life.
He said: "Was I a victim of politics? Yeah, but at the end of the day football is also a business and you need to respect the decisions which come from high above.
"It's one of those things which happen in football, and you can only keep your head down and keep working.
"Because it was beyond my control there was nothing much else I could do - I just went in and trained every day, kept going and kept my head up. I've got a family behind me who supported me all the way and that was really a plus.
"I was always in touch with the manager, even when I went out on loan, and there was never anything bad between us. It was just a situation we were in.
"He told me in the summer that I would be involved in pre-season, and you then have to go and show you can cope and work hard and hopefully I have done that. It felt like a second debut for the club and I'm just looking forward now to playing and hopefully winning more games."
