Hat-trick hero Steve Torpey was not Scunthorpe's only hero, as keeper Tommy Evans was as important to a victory that at least seems impressive.
But even United boss Brian Laws admitted his side were lucky: "It looks like we ran away with the game but we had to defend well. They were the better side in the first half and put us under a lot of pressure.
It was not until after the break that we could put them under any control. In the second-half they only had one corner to eight or nine in the first half and that says an awful lot about the sort of game it was.
Tommy has kept us in it. He made some great saves especially early on and because of him we were able to show what we can do.
Yes, we were lucky but we also played well and I am delighted. These games give a manager sleepless nights."Torpey's treble came with a close-range finish before half time from an Andy Dawson cross, followed by a far post header when Steve Wright's corner was flicked across the goal mouth by Jamie McCombe.
And in the 70th minute he belted home a penalty after Lee Featherstone had been fouled by Matthew Parry."
Evans best save thwarted Vic's player-boss Jimmy Quinn when the score was two-nil.
Quinn said: "Not only did he make some great stops, everything stuck.
Goals change games, we created enough chances and played well but a goal was always lacking. If we had scored first today they would of had big problems but I can not fault the players, they were out foxed by a league side who had a couple of stars.
If we play like that for the rest of the season I won't mind because we will win more games than we lose."