Craig Fagan has exchanged a doomed relegation campaign for the chance of promotion with his former club Hull City.
The striker starred for City yesterday just hours after returning on loan from Premier League club Derby, who paid £750,000 for him 14 months ago.
"Signing Craig is a great bit of business by our chairman," said Hull boss Phil Brown.
"We've been hunting high and low, but it's the business end of the season and nobody wants to let people go, but Derby have already resigned themselves to relegation."
The win moved Hull into the top six for the first time this season. "I'd rather be there on May 4, but there's never a bad time to be in the play-off positions," said Brown.
"We're capable of staying there because we have an experienced group of players who seem to be relishing the challenge."
Among them is Fagan, whose shot - with 27 minutes gone - was brilliantly blocked by keeper Joe Murphy but Henrik Pedersen reacted quickly to head in the rebound.
And it was 2-0 just 10 minutes later as Michael Turner headed in a corner from Andy Dawson.
Fagan should have had nother after the break but he shot over the bar as Scunthorpe spent most of their time defending rather than going for goal.
Scunthorpe manager Nigel Adkins said: "It was a bad day at the office, but give credit to Hull. They were superb and made it a very difficult for our players."
HOW THEY RATED
HULL
Myhill 6, Ricketts 6, Turner 7, Brown 6, Dawson 7, Garcia 6, MARNEY 8, Ashbee 6, Pedersen 7 (Walton 5), Campbell 7, Fagan 7.
Manager Brown 7
SCUNTHORPE
Murphy 8, Hobbs 5, Crosby 5, Iriekpen 5, Williams 6, Morris 5 (Forte 5), Goodwin 5 (Horsfield 5), McCann 5 (Weston 5), Cork 5, May 6, Paterson 5.
Manager Adkins 5
Referee M Halsey 6
MAN OF THE MATCH
DEAN MARNEY
The driving force in Hull's midfield.
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Jonathan Pearce
ALEC STEWART
THE MOLE