SEVEN points adrift of safety a fortnight ago, Scunthorpe United could find themselves out of the relegation zone for the first time in three months with a victory at Barnsley tomorrow night.

Saturday's 1-0 success over second-placed Swansea moved the Iron to within touching distance of fourth bottom Crystal Palace and continued a Glanford Park renaissance which has revived once flagging hopes of second tier survival.

United have taken 10 points from 12 and have kept three clean sheets in four games in front of their own fans on the back of a dreadful run of seven defeats in eight games.

Now manager Ian Baraclough hopes his side's new-found momentum can be as big a player for the Iron as the 11 squad members who pull on a claret jersey each match.

"I keep banging on about it, but I've got a group of players who are working so hard day in, day out to get this club out of the danger zone," he said after the Swansea victory, achieved courtesy of Joe Garner's second-half penalty.

"We're now one point away from doing that.

"You can see the backing from everybody, there's not one person that's stood on the sidelines thinking 'I don't want to be a part of this'. That's a great quality to have.

"Momentum is with us and I think the belief is coming that we can beat anybody on our day if we do things right."

“If we do things off the cuff, then you get hurt.

“But we know what it means to win games and we know how to win games, so if we work to a game plan we’ve got a belief that everyone buys into.”

The next five days are as big as any in the remaining eight weeks of the Iron’s campaign.

They host Leicester City at the weekend, on the back of tomorrow’s visit to Oakwell, while Palace tackle high-flying Cardiff and runaway leaders QPR respectively.

And although ‘delighted’ with Scunthorpe’s potential, Baraclough insists no-one connected with United is getting carried away at their improving home form.

“Maybe we’ve turned a corner, but we’re certainly not out of the woods,” he acknowledged.

“We’ve got to carry on working hard, there’s a quarter of the season left and a lot of points to play for.

“A few adverse results can put you right down there again and people will be writing us off.

“But people are saying now that we’ve got a chance of getting out of it, when maybe a few weeks ago we weren’t getting that credit.”