Gloucester hero Elton Moncrieff summed up his match-winning exploits against Heineken Cup rivals Llanelli in just one word - lucky.
The Gloucester scrum-half struck a dramatic 78th-minute drop goal, giving his team a pool five life-line as they defeated Llanelli 28-27 and kept alive their quarter-final hopes.
Gloucester had trailed for the entire game until Moncrieff came up trumps, despite fly-half Simon Mannix kicking six penalties and converting a first-half penalty try when loch Ian Jones was impeded illegally at a line out.
With Gloucester trailing by two points and laying siege to the Llanelli line, Moncrieff went for broke, but his short-range kick only went over the crossbar after it bounced off a Scarlet forward, prop Phil Booth.
"I was just lucky that it scraped over," Moncrieff said. "I didn't hit it very well at all.
"After it went over, I just stood there laughing for a bit. It was fortunate, because I don't think that Philippe Saint-Andre (Gloucester coach) would have been very happy if I'd missed.
"If it hadn't gone over, then I expect I would have been the worst man in Gloucester tonight, so I was just glad to get the three points.
"Today was all about hanging in there and keeping to our game plan. We knew we could do it, even though we were behind for nearly all the game - after I kicked the drop goal, there was still three minutes left."
Gloucester look certain to reach the last eight if they beat Roma in Italy next Saturday, although whether it is as group winners or runners-up depends on the outcome of Colomiers' trip to Llanelli.
Gloucester's season hinged on the outcome of Saturday's clash, watched by a sell-out 10,800 crowd at Kingsholm, and they could hardly have left it much later.
Llanelli scored two sparkling tries from wing Mark Jones, and their Welsh international fly-half Stephen Jones matched Mannix kick for kick during a memorable encounter.
Saint-Andre added: "We cannot get carried away by this result. We have to beat Roma if we want to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
"The guys were very nervous today, but I told them that all the pressure was on my shoulders. We were not a confident team, and it showed because we could not take advantage when Llanelli were reduced to 14 men on two separate occasions."
Llanelli coach Gareth Jenkins took issue with French referee Didier Mene, claiming: "He crucified us.
"You cannot play at this level of rugby for 20 minutes with 14 men, and this is the fourth or fifth time this season that we have won in terms of our performance, but still lost the game.
"The team didn't let themselves down, and we can still qualify for the quarter finals. The Colomiers game is a cup final for us.
"Colomiers beat Toulouse in the French Championship this season, and they will probably present us with more problems than Gloucester did.
"We have to win against them - the loser of that game will go home with nothing."