The League Cup was the last major trophy City won, when former director Dennis Tueart was among the scorers against Newcastle at Wembley in 1976.

It is not a competition that has smiled too kindly on the Blues in recent times though, with first-hurdle exits at Doncaster and Chesterfield in the last two campaigns.

City endured a customary stumble at Ashton Gate on Wednesday when Bristol City rallied from a goal down.

But, despite making eight changes from the side which suffered its first Premier League defeat at Arsenal last weekend, Eriksson saw his team respond in the perfect manner with Rolando Bianchi's fine strike sealing a place in Saturday's third-round draw.

"I am taking this competition very seriously," said Eriksson.

"We have not won anything for quite a long time and it is important that anything we can win is taken seriously."

Questions about Eriksson's commitment to the competition could be raised by the huge number of changes, although, in truth, the encounter provided an opportunity to give some of his fringe men a game as well as handing others some much-needed training time.

Midfield duo Elano and Martin Petrov, plus full-back Javier Garrido, remained at City's Carrington training base to catch up on some solo work.

"Some of the players needed to train," Eriksson added. "On Monday many will leave for international duty, which is why I decided to leave them at home.

"It also gave me a chance to look at some of the others who have not played very often this season.

"You know that sooner or later, you will need all of them. Giving them a match like this was good. They were all very hungry."

Debutant Shaleum Logan impressed, even if his final ball was lacking at times. The 19-year-old certainly did enough to suggest he will become the latest member of City's impressive academy to make the first-team transition.

Bianchi's first goal since the opening-day win at West Ham will lift the £8.8million striker's confidence.

And, with Valeri Bojinov out for at least five months with knee ligament damage, there were encouraging signs for Bianchi's partnership with fellow scorer Emile Mpenza.

However, the major beneficiary of Eriksson's selection policy was England Under-21 goalkeeper Joe Hart.

The former Shrewsbury youngster appears to have been leapfrogged by Kasper Schmeichel in the pecking order but produced a couple of inspired saves, including an acrobatic one to deny Mark McIndoe which had Eriksson gasping.

"It was a fantastic save," said the Swede. "The ball was flying in and somehow Joe got there.

"I have said before we have two young lions in goal. I really don't know who is the best."

With the transfer window about to close, Eriksson remains on the hunt for fresh faces.

His chances of success are restricted somewhat by the need to get rid of a few current first-teamers.

Judging by their absence from the team bus last night, striking trio Georgios Samaras, Bernardo Corradi and Darius Vassell all have limited futures.

Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is keen to sign Samaras, while Vassell has already turned down one move to Derby.

Reports of an impending transfer to Wigan for the former England international appear wide of the mark, while Paul Dickov and Danny Mills are both available too.

"We are still working and we hope something will happen but we cannot end up with 26 senior players," reflected Eriksson.

"Not only does it cost a lot of money to pay them every month, it is not practical in training terms either because you almost need two pitches."