The Iron made it back-to-back home wins and also stretched their unbeaten run to nine games as they defeated Rochdale 2-1 on Boxing Day.
Liam O’Neil opened the scoring for United and, although Matty Done equalised for the visitors a little while later, Paddy Madden won it for Scunthorpe with 13 minutes left.The result saw the Iron climb up to 17th place and also move four points clear of the bottom four with a game in hand over some of the teams around them.
Elsewhere in League One, goals from Matt Smith and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas secured a 2-1 victory for Bristol City over Yeovil.
Ben Nugent netted a consolation for Yeovil, but Gary Johnson’s side remain bottom of the League One table.
MK Dons, Swindon and Preston are only a point behind Bristol City after they all won their respective Boxing Day matches.
The Dons defeated Notts County 1-0 to keep up the pressure on the leaders and stay in second spot, with Daniel Powell’s goal proving to be the difference.
Swindon enjoyed a comfortable 4-1 win at Walsall, thanks to an Andy Williams brace and strikes from Michael Smith and Massimo Luongo.
Preston are only behind them on goal difference after their 1-0 win at home to Barnsley, with Paul Gallagher’s penalty separating the two sides. Barnsley are in 16th ahead of the Iron on goal difference.
The Iron’s opposition on Sunday, Sheffield United, fell to a 2-1 defeat at Port Vale. Chris Basham was also sent-off for the Blades, who remain in the top six despite defeat.
Bradford City capitalised on others slipping up to move into the play-offs and into 5th after a 2-0 win at Fleetwood Town. James Hanson and Filipe Morais scored the goals for the Bantams.
Chesterfield and Peterborough played out an entertaining game which finished 3-2, although the hosts had breezed into a 3-0 lead.
Peterborough hit back to give Chesterfield a nervy final quarter of an hour, but they could not find an equaliser and fell to 10th spot below their hosts.
It was a good day for Crewe, who made it back-to-back wins, beating Oldham away from home despite only having 10 men.
George Ray was dismissed for Crewe, but Nicky Ajose’s brace secured victory for the visitors, although they remain in the bottom four.
Gillingham also managed a 2-1 win at Colchester, while Leyton Orient secured a 4-1 home victory over Crawley and there was also a 2-0 win for Doncaster over nine man Coventry.
Next up for the Iron is a trip to Sheffield United as Mark Robins’ side look to stretch their unbeaten run to ten matches.
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