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A couple of minutes later Peter Beagrie saw a swirling effort punched away from under his own crossbar by Marlon Beresford.
The Minstermen's first goalscoring opportunity came in the seventh minute after James Cotterill - who looked much more assured than a fortnight ago when Wrexham were in town - failed to put enough weight on his backpass. Luckily though the interception was only made by Lee Nogan, the former Grimsby Town forward who had a rough time of it from the home terrace, and although he took the ball past a hesitant Tommy Evans his final touch was poor and the ball ran out of play with no real danger of an equaliser.
The Yorkshire side looked less than assured at the back, particularly when defending the left-wing threat from Peter Beagrie.
In fact Beagrie almost got on the scoresheet in the 19th minute when he wormed his way through to drive in a terrific shot which flicked the bar on its way over the top - the first of two similar efforts.
York were back on level terms after 25 minutes. Left-back Tom Cowan won a corner and Stephen Brackstone drifted a left-wing corner to the far post where Peter Duffield stooped low to head past Evans who may have got a hand to the ball.
Scunthorpe regained the upper hand with Wayne Graves and Beagrie both going close before a horrific mix-up in the York defence saw Scott Jones tap the ball into Carruthers' path and he turned the ball home - ensuring that United went in at the break back in the lead.
York substitute Stuart Wise was stretchered off just after the hour mark following a clash of heads with Torpey and needed stitches above an eye. The player was applauded off by both sets of fans, though this didn't stop the travelling fans booing when Mark Jackson required treatment on the pitch with a similar effort later - he played on with a bandage wrapped round his head.
Wise was replaced with Carvalo, a Brazilian forward who was applauded onto the pitch by the York fans. We can only presume that they had never before seen him play - as the big bruiser was merely a John Gayle wannabee with less skill.
With around half an hour of the game to play Scott Brough was brought on as replacement for Matty Sparrow who had played out a quiet game on the right wing.
Terry Barwick came on at the death, as United played out an uneasy eight minutes of stoppage time but rarely looked likley to concede a second equaliser.
The referee must come in for special comment, as he put in what was an early contender for the worst refereeing performance at Glanny Park this season. Football fans all too often complain that the ref is the opposition's twelfth man, but this time there would be no surprise to see a York City shirt underneath his black top.
The majority of his decisions were just plain wrong, obvious Iron free-kicks were given to York Cith whilst how Scott Brough escaped without a booking for a late lunge must be unbeknown to even Scott - incredibly it wasn't even deemed as a foul. Steve Torpey being booked for challenging a 50/50 ball was also a poor decision which sticks in the memory.
At the beginning of this report we said you'd never guess who our key man was, and unless you were at the match I doubt you would. But yes, Steve Torpey had a fine game upfront. According to Brian Laws after the match, Torps won 31 headers. He was also involved in both the goals and was regularly a danger to the York defence.