Dawson looking to kick on

Caretaker boss Andy Dawson is convinced Scunthorpe can now start climbing the League One table after a 3-0 win at Gillingham.

Former Coventry and Huddersfield boss Robins agreed to be Scunthorpe's new manager 24 hours before kick-off and watched on as Dawson took charge and his new side ran riot. Goals from Paddy Madden, Neal Bishop and Gary McSheffrey did the damage against 10-man Gillingham. "The players can come into work on Monday with their heads held high," said Dawson. "It's nice for him to come and see that today, because when you come into a team at the bottom of the table, you never know what you're walking into. "He has watched a good performance, so I'm sure he'll be pleased with what he has seen. "Playing against 10 men makes things easier, but we said we had to be patient. Sometimes teams with 10 men flood the defence and they sit back. In the end we got three very good goals. "We've had to prepare the team for today; we told the players to express themselves and to a man, the whole squad showed what good footballers they are. They deserved what they got." Madden's fifth league goal of the season came shortly before half-time, as he latched on to McSheffrey's through ball and rounded Gills goalkeeper Stephen Bywater. Iron captain Bishop doubled their lead with a point-blank header from Luke O'Neill's cross on 72 minutes, before McSheffrey scored a solo effort after an incisive Scunthorpe break in stoppage time. It was the Iron's first away win since April 5th, and came three days after the club sacked manager Russ Wilcox. However, the early-season strugglers dominated even before Gills captain Doug Loft was sent off for a two-footed challenge on O'Neill after 34 minutes. Gillingham manager Peter Taylor, who was sent off by referee Peter Banks for dissent shortly after Loft's dismissal, said: "We should have scored in the first minute - had we have done, maybe we would have had a different day. "After that, it was a very poor performance. It was an even game before Doug got sent off, and after that we didn't do enough. I've seen 10 players beat 11 before, but there wasn't the belief they could do that. "The sending-off was the correct decision. It's a tackle that used to happen years ago but has been cut out. The referee was correct. "I threw a plastic bottle, which was empty, on the ground. It bounced onto the pitch, and because of that I was told I had to be sent off. "We've let a lot of people down. We had 7,500 people here, which is fantastic for us. We've shown them a negative side of ourselves."