Cristiano Ronaldo proved that persistence is a virtue as he scored his 31st goal of an astonishing season to give Manchester United a 1-0 victory over rock-bottom Derby.
With his ninth of 11 chances overall in the game, Ronaldo finally broke brave Derby's resistence in the 76th minute by scoring the only goal to take United back to the top of the Barclays Premiership table following Arsenal's late draw with Middlesbrough.
It was cruel on doomed Derby in one respect, but deserved by the Reds in another, stretching the Rams' winless streak in the Premier League to 24 matches.
It was unsurprisingly men against boys, yet somehow Derby headed into the interval on the back of the most incredulous scoreline of its wretched season as the Pride Park club held United scoreless.
For the opening 20 minutes the rout everyone had expected was on the cards as United carved up the Rams at will, and it appeared only a matter of time before the Devils would make the breakthrough.
Yet it never came, and as the half wore on, Derby steadily grew in confidence and towards the end of the period it even had the audacity to create two gilt-edged openings of its own.
As far as Sir Alex Ferguson was concerned, that was not in the script as a Derby side without a league win since mid-September should have been theirs for the taking.
After being mauled 6-1 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in midweek, Ferguson would surely have expected his side to hand out more of the same punishment to Jewell's beleaguered outfit at Pride Park.
The intent was certainly there, instigated after just 70 seconds as Wayne Rooney and Ji-Sung Park combined for the latter to whip in a cross from the right wing.
Ryan Giggs, returning as captain after missing last week's 1-0 FA Cup loss to Portsmouth at Old Trafford with a calf injury, should have done better with a downward header, but only succeeded in finding the arms of outstanding former United stopper Roy Carroll.
It was the precursor to a flurry of chances as Ronaldo curled a left-foot shot narrowly wide with only Carroll to beat following a through ball from Patrice Evra.
Giggs then drilled a drive wide after again being picked out by Park from the right, followed swiftly by Ronaldo striking the base of the right-hand post with a low, curling shot from 15 yards.
Surely the goal would arrive, but no, with Giggs again the culprit in the 19th minute as he sliced a shot wide after being set free by Rooney and Ronaldo.
The Portuguese star, who had been on the receiving end of a late challenge and a shirt tug from Darren Moore and David Jones that had earned bookings for the pair, was again a whisker away just after the half-hour.
But, despite curling towards the top right-hand corner a superb shot with the outside of his right foot, Carroll was equally as superb with his save as he clawed the ball away.
When the storm abated, Derby dared to take the lead themselves, only for debutant goalkeeper Ben Foster to underline his emerging talent with two stunning saves.
His first was a reaction stop as he turned aside a snap shot from Socceroo Mile Sterjovski in the heart of the area, with his second moments later a fingertip stop in pushing