Cristiano Ronaldo's 50th club career hat-trick, which includes a surprise late free kick, helped Manchester United win 3-2 over Norwich City at Old Trafford on Saturday, keeping their top-four hopes alive.
On Friday, United fans protested against the club's ownership outside the Carrington training ground and it continued ahead of a clash with Norwich as thousands of supporters marched outside the ground.
But with the opposition still running out United - having won just one of their last seven matches to come in this match - were ready to run from it as they went 2-0 up within the first 32 minutes.
Ronaldo scored his first goal after just seven minutes as Anthony Elanga caught defender Ben Gibson on the edge of the Norwich box to propel Portugal, which ended from close range.
United's No 7 took his second after half an hour as he overtook Norwich goalkeeper Tim Krull from a corner.
But Norwich pulled a goal back in stoppage time of the first half, with Timu Pukki picking up an unmarked Kieran Dowell to go home from inside the six-yard box.
And the bottom half of the Premier League was level on 52 minutes as Dowell set up Pukki on the occasion, in which the Finland international beat the offside trap and kept his cool to find the back of the net from inside the post.
But on 76 minutes, Ronaldo was United's hero again as he sealed the victory with a brilliant free kick to complete his second treble of the campaign.
After the match, United goalkeeper David de Gea said Ronaldo's triple meant United could still challenge for a place in the top four, but asked for more.
"Ronaldo has scored three very important goals for us," said the Spain international. "We know we are not playing very well but we got three points.
"We should control the game more against Norwich at home. A big win for us. We still have a chance to make the top four and we have to fight for it."
"We will fight until the last second for the top four."
Regarding the protests from fans, a United spokesperson said: "We are working hard to create the conditions for renewed success on the pitch, while strengthening our engagement with the fans.
"We respect the right of fans to voice their opinions calmly and we will continue to listen to them, aiming to work together to bring the club back to where we want it: competing for the trophy."
United are now only three points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur in the race for Champions League qualification, but United coach Ralph Rangnick was not overly confident of getting the job done, especially with title-chasing Liverpool on Tuesday.
"Today's game has been seen by all, we all know which team we are playing on Tuesday," Rangnik said. "They can have a chance to win four trophies. If we play like today, it will be very difficult to get a point out of this game.
"Our defensive size was the biggest issue for me today, although I wouldn't say size because I don't think it has anything to do with size. I'm really not happy with my performance when we weren't in possession of the ball.
"I know there are no easy games in this league, but we have to defend better than we are today, no matter what the opposition. Even more so if we think about the upcoming games."