Steve Kabba's late strike rescued a point for Sheffield United as they extended their unbeaten run to 12 matches with a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace.
The former Palace favourite pounced with just three minutes left after it seemed their luck had run out.
The Blades clearly had one eye on next week's FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal when after 15 minutes Dele Adebola cut through the heart of the visitors' defence to drill a low right-foot shot wide of Paddy Kenny's outstretched hand and into the bottom corner.
Although United recovered to level five minutes later after Tony Popovic turned a Wayne Allison cross into his own net, slack work again from United allowed Palace to edge in front on 28 minutes.
Shaun Derry won a decisive tackle just outside the box and the ball broke kindly to Noel Whelan and the on-loan Middlesbrough striker shrugged off his markers with ease before firing under Kenny's body for his second Palace goal since his move from the North East.
After the break Dougie Freedman wasted a couple of chances and Steve Thomson fired over when left with an open goal.
But the Blades rallied strongly in the final 15 minutes with Alex Kolinko making spectacular stops to deny Kabba and Carl Asaba.
Then Kabba showed how it should be done with a low shot through a ruck of players to ensure they remained in a strong position to clinch a play-off place.
Afterwards Eagles manager Trevor Francis: "I think when you play Sheffield United the game is never finished. They make good use of their subs and they go right to the end.
"We found it tough in the second half to defend set pieces without Dele Adebola's height but Sheffield kept up the pressure and they got the equaliser. I was disappointed that we didn't convert the chances we had in the second half to go on and win the game." Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock added: "You've got to take your hat off to us really. We were lucky in the first half, but apart from Freedman's effort in the first half we really worked well.
"I'm really pleased for Steve Kabba to have scored the equaliser."