United drew seven points clear of the chasing play-off pack and leapfrogged Chesterfield into second place in the League Two ladder on Saturday with victory over a dogged Burton Albion.
The visitors had the better of the first half but a second half resurgence and a Madden wonder-strike gave the Iron a deserved three points, adding one more to Russ Wilcox's now 22 game unbeaten run as manager.A bouyant Paddy Madden, the goalscorer, spoke to The Iron Player fresh from the field following the action at Glanford Park.
The strike, he says, is up there with his best.
He said: "It was right up there with the Wembley play-off final goal for Yeovil but I caught it sweet and thankfully it went in.
"It was nice to get the goal but at this stage of the season it's not really important who scores the goals its about the three points and promotion but I'll work hard for the team without the ball too, you'll get that every game with me."
The visitors made proceedings far from comfortable for the Iron. Albion set up to frustrate and until Madden's strike on the hour they did so. There came the chance to extend the lead from the spot via Gary McSheffrey following that but with the opportunity spurned, United had to hold on to a lead once more; something Madden says has been a focus in recent weeks.
He said: "Russ has been working hard with us in training, working on seeing games out. Obviously we have conceded late goals before and Russ wanted us to knock that on the head. He's had us in training on that and we've done a very professional job to see it out. They didn't really create much because we closed the game down."
"It was hard to get going in the first half for whatever reason. They picked up a lot of the second balls. They sat deep and played a 4-5-1 so they were just sitting back then trying to get the ball into the channels. Second half they opened up a bit more I thought and it gave us a bit of room to get into the channels ourselves. We did that and kept them up in their half of the pitch."
After forming a gap to the play-off pack and with Cheltenham next up, the Irishman is keen to retain a professional approach through the crucial last eight games of the season, insisting the job is not done yet.
He stated: "There's a seven point gap between us, Burton and Fleetwood but we have to keep doing our job and being professional every game. We got promoted last year when I was with Yeovil because we were professional and didn't take our foot of the gas. We'll have to do that here. We can't start celebrating now, there's still 8 games to go. It's going to be a massive game now on Tuesday. We have to go there with the right frame of mind and get the three points."
See much more from Paddy Madden, Russ Wilcox and Marcus Williams on The Iron Player.