The Iron's Under-18s side were 4-2 winners away at Rotherham United on Saturday morning.
Scunthorpe's first goal came on 18 minutes as Harrison Poulter did well to close down a Millers defender on the halfway line. He intercepted a square pass and went half the length of the pitch before slotting the ball past the onrushing Rotherham goalkeeper to put the Iron in the lead.
The second arrived on the half hour mark after a quick counter-attack saw midfielder Jack Moore-Billam break at pace into the penalty area where he appeared to be fouled, but like last week the penalty decision went against Scunthorpe and it wasn’t given.
The game played on and the Rotherham goalkeeper picked the ball up. He then dropped it and picked it up again, so the referee awarded an in-direct free-kick to the Iron.
Poulter was quick-thinking and played a short free-kick sideways to Nat Wallace who calmly side-footed his shot low into the corner.
The third goal came in the 34th minute and started with Scunthorpe goalkeeper Jake Balme playing out from the back by rolling the ball out wide to central defender Harry Elliott-Bell. He played a well-weighted ball forward to find the run of striker Poulter.
He held off the Rotherham central defender and his pass found Ben Franklin who was getting forward from midfield. Franklin went one versus one with his opponent before playing an excellent pass with the outside of his right foot to find Poulter whose first touch changed the angle enough for him to curl his effort beyond the home keeper.
The fourth goal in the 42nd minute was again started by goalkeeper Balme, this time rolling the ball out to the left. Ethan Young and Charley Strouther combined to get the ball in to the feet of striker Wallace. He did really well to dummy his opponent by allowing the ball to run. Then came an excellent pass from Wallace as he saw Poulter making a run in behind the Rotherham defence and his pass was perfect for the fellow forward to finish first time for his second hat-trick of the season. His other one was against Bradford City in the first game of the season.
The half time whistle came to cap off a fine first half performance from the Under-18s.
Tactically and psychologically, the focus at half time was to maintain the same level of performance in the second half and to keep doing the right things as a team.
Rotherham made it 4-1 from the penalty spot just after the second half started. This came after a Millers corner was flicked on to the far post and as a Rotherham player went to shoot, legs appeared to clash and the referee pointed to the spot and the home team took the chance to pull a goal back.
It became 4-2 in the 63rd minute when the Millers were putting Scunthorpe under pressure and they scored a second goal as a cross to the far post was finished on the volley to reduce the deficit and to give the home team hope of getting back in to it.
Academy manager Tony Daws concluded: "Our players managed the rest of the game well and deservedly won a difficult match."
Team line-up details to follow.