Manchester United took a step closer to clinching the Premiership title as they eventually overcame a stubborn Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at White Hart Lane.
It looked like Spurs were going to give their local rivals Arsenal a favour as they frustrated United for over an hour with Kasey Keller pulling off a string of fantastic saves.
But you could almost hear the groans from down the road at Highbury when the sheer weight of United pressure finally told as goals from Paul Scholes and Ruud van Nistelrooy in injury time sealed a vital three points.
The patteren of the game was set in the very first minute when van Nistelrooy turned Dean Richards but was denied by a brilliant save from Keller. That was the story of the first half as the American keeper kept out everything United threw at him.
Five minutes after Richards had headed wide, van Nistelrooy did get the ball past Keller but could not steer Ryan Giggs' cross inside the near post.
Then the Dutch striker was denied twice within a minute either side of the half hour mark, first when his close-range efffort was blocked by Keller allowing Kazuyuki Toda to clear off the line and then when his header from David Beckham's cross was tipped over the bar.
Van Nistelrooy's best chance arrived six minutes before the break when an inch-perfect pass from Roy Keane put him through, but Keller saved his shot to ensure it remained goalless at half time.
The chances kept coming thick and fast for United after the inteval as Keller helped a Ole Gunnar Solskjaer shot over the bar and then pushed Beckham's free-kick around the post.
When van Nistelrooy missed another great chance with 24 minutes remaining, dragging his shot wide after being put clear by Solskjaer, Sir Alex Ferguson must have begun to wonder if it was going to be his day.
However his team remained patient and were rewarded in the 69th minute when Beckham's long ball was flicked on by Scholes who then burst into the box to head home Giggs' cross and send the visiting fans wild.
Gus Poyet almost silenced them with six minutes to go when he headed just wide from Stephen Carr's wicked free-kick, but after Keller had saved a point-blank volley by Giggs in the final minute, van Nistelrooy finally got the goal he deserved in injury time, controlling Quinton Fortune's cross to blast his shot home.