United were held to a 1-1 home draw in their high noon showdown with Sheffield Wednesday.
Ian Morris handed the hosts the perfect start on 18 minutes with an audacious effort, but the visitors pulled it back three minutes after the restart when Ben Sahar fired home.
Neither side offered much attacking-wise and, with just four games left now, a draw will do Scunthorpe no good whatsoever as they still sit eight points adrift of safety.
The Iron made three changes ahead of the match, with Marcus Williams, Morris and Jonathan Forte replacing Ian Baraclough, Kevan Hurst and Martin Paterson in the starting eleven.
The game saw the return of former Scunthorpe quartet Brian Laws (Owls manager), Russ Wilcox (assistant boss), Sean McAuley (coach) and Ashley Fickling (physio). Wednesday defender Richard Hinds missed out with an ankle injury.
United kicked off with a 4-5-1 formation, as Forte and Curtis Weston utilised their pace on either flank.
In truth, the match got off to a quiet start, with neither side really testing the other goalkeeper - but Scunthorpe managed to go ahead with their first real effort of the afternoon.
Morris found the space on the left to beat his man and curl in a delightful effort from 35 yards beyond Lee Grant at his far post. It was a great start for the Iron as Morris wheeled away to celebrate his third strike of the season.
On 22 minutes he had another chance, just volleying wide with his left foot from outside the 18-yard box.
The Owls were presented with their first chance of the game on 25 minutes when Frank Songo'o blasted a low free-kick just wide of Joe Murphy's bottom right-hand post from 25 yards.
They then had another decent opportunity just two minutes later when Deon Burton burst through and rounded Murphy on the edge of the area, Sahar's attempt to strike the ball into an empty net was superbly deflected wide for a corner by Izzy Iriekpen though, and Scunthorpe lived to fight another day.
Morris drilled an effort wide of goal when he, perhaps, had more time on 42 minutes.
It was a half of few chances, but United were having the better of the game so far - going in a goal up at the interval.
Playing into the wind for the second period and with the rain now bucketing down, Scunthorpe conceded a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area. Burton took it, and it was blocked by the Iron wall.
Jermaine Johnson drilled the ball back into the penalty area and it was converted into the back of the net by Sahar, in front of a jubilant away stand full of Owls fans.
The conditions were affecting the game and both teams were struggling to get into any sort of rhythm going forward.
Nigel Adkins' side hit the crossbar on 59 minutes when Grant McCann's curled free-kick from the right-hand side of the penalty area bounced back into play off the Wednesday crossbar. He then had their next chance shortly, afterwards, but his low effort was deflected into the hands of Lee Grant.
The hosts made their first change of the afternoon on 60 minutes when Martin Paterson came on for Weston to add a more clinical edge to the Scunthorpe attack.
Sheffield Wednesday had the next chance 10 minutes later when Burton headed over the crossbar from a cross by Small on the left.
McCann could have done better when he received the ball in the area on his favoured left foot from Geoff Horsfield on 77 minutes, but he couldn't get the ball out from under his feet and the chance went begging.
The Owls could have taken the lead inn spectacular fashion three minutes later when Steve Watson's blast from 25 yards flew just over Murphy's crossbar.
There was a final throw of the dice from the hosts five minutes from time when Paul Hayes and May replaced Horsfield and McCann. It was too late for them to have any longlasting impact though as the match ended in a draw.
Scunthorpe are next in action when they visit Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Attendance: 7,425 (2,204 away).
Iron Bar and sponsors' man of the match: Andy Butler.
