Danny Hylton scored the winner as Luton climbed into the Sky Bet Championship play-off places with a 1-0 victory against Derby at Kenilworth Road.
The visitors should have led on four minutes when Jason Knight broke away on the right and sent over a cross that a stretching Colin Kazim-Richards fired disappointingly over the bar.
Ex-Manchester United youngster Ravel Morrison did not miss by much from his 25-yard free-kick, while Rams skipper Curtis Davies put a volley well wide after a corner dropped invitingly to him in the area.
Luton had their first real chance after 31 minutes when a short corner routine saw Kal Naismith's cross headed into the stands by top scorer Elijah Adebayo.
The forward had another opening just before half-time, but could not get anywhere near enough on his volley from Harry Cornick's cross, with Ryan Allsop easily gathering.
Luton tried to get on the front foot in the second period, midfielder Henri Lansbury taking aim from outside the box, but he could only scuff his effort through to Allsop.
They were thankful to keeper Jed Steer for a magnificent save on 52 minutes, as he arched his back to tip Max Bird's curling effort against the bar and away.
A fine break on the right by Reece Burke led to his hanging cross being turned over by visiting keeper Allsop, as the Hatters began to enjoy some kind of ascendancy.
After the hour mark, Burke stooped to head wide, while Bird tried his luck again from distance, but Luton led on 67 minutes.
A long ball from the back was met by substitute Cameron Jerome who nodded down to fellow replacement Hylton.
He took a touch and then picked out the bottom corner from the edge of the box to score his second in as many games and a first home league goal since March 2019.
Burke went close to a second moments later, receiving Amari'i Bell's cross at the back post and lashing his drive into the side-netting.
Luton might have had another as Fred Onyedinma sent James Bree clear but the full-back failed to beat the legs of Allsop. County's keeper then did well to claw out Jerome's downward header to keep his side in it.
The Hatters could not get the second goal to kill their opponents off, as County sent Allsop up for a final corner, but it was thumped clear by Bree as Nathan Jones' side made it three wins in a row to move up to sixth.
The Rams dropped to second bottom in the table, leapfrogged by Barnsley, and are now eight points adrift of safety.
What the managers said...
Luton's Nathan Jones: "It's been a great month to be fair as apart from a debacle at Birmingham we've taken 15 points from 18. Unless you're Fulham, or Man City or Liverpool, you don't get many better months like that, so a wonderful, wonderful month and that's a credit to the players, a credit to everyone, the staff, everyone behind the scenes.
"It doesn't feel any different to being in eighth to be honest, it doesn't feel groundbreaking as there's a long way to go. If it was game 46 and we'd just finished sixth it would feel special, but it's wonderful to be in the position we are. First of all we had to secure our status in the league and we've done that a number of weeks ago, so we want to push boundaries, we want to evolve, we want to get better, so let's see where it takes us."
Derby's Wayne Rooney: "I'm frustrated, we changed our shape, we gave Luton the respect they deserved, they're not a team blessed with great individuals, but they're a good, honest, hard-working team. I felt the changes we made really kept them at arm's length, they didn't have the impact they normally have, but we conceded a bad goal from our point of view and didn't take our chances.
"We have to keep working and keep fighting. I can walk out of this stadium as a proud manager and so can the players as what they are doing is tough. We have had challenges all season and just need to keep fighting, I believe we can do it, but we have to start turning results like this into wins."