Even before he popped up in the 93rd minute of what Sir Alex Ferguson had described as the most important derby of his time in Manchester, Paul Scholes was enjoying a remarkable match. "He passed them to death all day," Gary Neville said afterwards, which was true enough, but for connoisseurs of Scholes's long career there had been a more noteworthy aspect to his performance.

In the 19th minute, with Adam Johnson threatening danger on the right-hand touchline, the little fellow tore across and launched himself into a brusque sliding tackle of the sort that has stained his record with so many yellow cards. This one, however, separated the young City winger from the ball with clean power and immaculate timing. Sixteen minutes later a United attack broke down and the ball came to Carlos Tevez, who turned quickly outside the City area and was preparing to launch himself on a counterattack against a depleted defence when Scholes again arrived to nick the ball away.

And so, at the age of 35, and after 15 years of defending like an attacker, Scholes may finally have learnt how to tackle without incurring the referee's wrath. Perhaps he was trying to prove to Ferguson that he is capable of giving extra value for the award of another year's contract, announced last week.

He was eased into the match with City's help. In the early stages Roberto Mancini's midfield seemed determined to give him all the time and space he needed from which to run the match. Nigel de Jong and Gareth Barry sat back to allow him to measure the range and angle of his passes, while neutrals could also sit back and appreciate the clarity of his vision and the precision of his technique.

Ferguson had called up all three survivors of his golden generation for this important and much-hyped game. Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville are brought into the action quite sparingly these days – their combined age of 106 is now more than double the sum of their Premier League starts this season – but their manager was in no doubt about their value on such an occasion.

"Their experience of these games is so important," Ferguson said. "They've played in so many of them and it helps the other players, quite apart from their own contribution." Underlining his point, it was the 39-year-old Edwin van der Sar who prevented City from taking an early lead by flying across his goal to catch Carlos Tevez's fine free kick.

Scholes generally sits deeper in the midfield nowadays, less of a sniper around the fringes of the penalty area than an artificer providing the ammunition for others to fire. And there was one richly amusing moment midway through the first half when he measured a lovely delivery from the centre circle for Giggs to chase behind the defence on the left – only to see the 36-year-old winger halt and watch the ball race away before turning, putting his hands on his hips and directing a look at his old colleague that seemed to say: "That pass, Scholesy, was about 15 years too late."

There were to be few such miscalculations as Scholes brought a hint of shape to a largely incoherent game. And after Ferguson had ordered him to push up in the closing minutes, when the ball was fizzing from end to end and either team could have snatched a goal, he rewarded his mentor by applying the finish to Patrice Evra's cross. Gliding into the penalty area, he found a couple of square yards of space before shaping his body and twisting his neck to direct the ball inside the far post with a glancing header straight from the coaching manual.

Of the other ageing musketeers, Giggs – another recent recipient of a new 12-month contract – should have given United the lead in the minute before half-time, coming to meet Antonio Valencia's square header with a tame flick of the outside of his left boot when any sort of a swing of his weaker foot would have been enough to beat Shay Given. His unflagging endeavor, however, was important to United's effort.

Neville, prudently selected by Ferguson ahead of Rafael da Silva to cope with the threat of Craig Bellamy, did his job efficiently and without fuss, and with enough energy to spare to allow him to make occasional incursions in support of his forwards. We probably have not seen the last of him, either.