Wayne Rooney is showing that predictions of a rock bottom season for Derby County are well wide of the mark.
It looked as though the Rams' on-field season would inevitably following the same path as their off-field problems.
Rooney may have had the unenviable task of trying to put together a squad capable of competing in the Championship, but he appears to have done it - despite losing star striker Colin Kazim-Richards through injury.
This battling display against a Middlesbrough side with top-six aspirations matched Rooney's insistence that his players 'win the battles'.