Juan Mata stepped off the bench to score the winner as Manchester United returned to winning ways despite a lackluster display against Crystal Palace.
Just four minutes after coming on for Adnan Januzaj, theUnited midfielder curled a deflected shot past Julian Speroni to hand Louis van Gaal's men a 1-0 win.
The result was a welcome one for United fans and their manager, who had not won any of his previous three matches.
But in truth, he will still feel a bit of the lousiness he spoke about at his pre-
match press conference on Friday.
Newcastle, West Ham and Sunderland had all scored three goals against Palace before this weekend, yet United did not look like cracking open the Eagles' defense for large parts of this match.
Luke Shaw tested Julian Speroni with a low shot and Marouane Fellaini had a header cleared off the line, but United offered little else going forward.
Palace will feel they could have taken a much-needed point from Old Trafford. Fraizer Campbell wasted a great chance to score against his old employers in the first half.
But Van Gaal will still be happy that his makeshift team returned to winning ways with a result that moves them up to fifth in the Barclays Premier League.
Januzaj let fly with a powerful shot which dipped just over the bar, but otherwise Unitedfound Palace's defense hard to crack in the first half.
The hosts enjoyed plenty of possession, but Neil Warnock's defense dropped deep andUnited barely entered the away box