An uplifting victory for Albion in the face of adversity should not be allowed to paper over some significant cracks.
Dick Knight must act now in two key areas to give Dean Wilkins the support he deserves.
The chairman needs to fund an addition to the management staff.
Wilkins and his assistant Dean White have been doing the job of four men since the departures of Mark McGhee and Bob Booker.
Knight has insisted all along money is available. The real issue is whether it is enough to make a difference to a depleted and inexperienced squad.
The evidence, both past and present, indicates otherwise. McGhee, in an interview with the magazine Insight City News, said: "It's a myth that there are a lot of players out there that we could have attracted on loan.
"I repeatedly spoke to Dick Knight about players but we never had the money. I wanted to sign Stephen McPhail, Michael Chopra and Roger Myarse.
"We had nothing to make them come, apart from Bob Booker's warm and inviting mouth. All three are now playing for top of the Championship Cardiff."
Wilkins and White have so far brought in a teenage target man from Aston Villa's reserves (Sam Williams) and rightback Andrew Whing from Coventry.
It is a start. They each played leading roles in a surprising but richly deserved win, Williams inadvertently as the victim of the challenge which caused an early red card for Scunthorpe centre half Steve Foster and Whing as the supplier of both goals.
More new faces are still desperately needed, though, if Albion are to avoid a fight against relegation, preferably with proven track records rather than just promising kids from Premiership clubs.
Wilkins masterminded a notable triumph by making a couple of important changes.
All credit to him for, temporarily at least, abandoning his cultured principles for a back-to-basics policy which was the essence of the Seagulls' success.
He also made a clever substitution at half-time which re-established Albion's grip on the game after conceding an equaliser against the run of play.
Foster lasted only 17 minutes. Referee Darren Deadman reached straight for red for the fourth time in eight matches when he led with his arm in a challenge on Williams close to the touchline.
Albion took just five minutes to make their numerical supremacy tell, mighty midget Dean Cox stooping low to the ground to bounce in a header from Whing's inviting cross.
An interval lead looked assured until, three minutes from the break, a cross by the overlapping Lee Morris was headed against his own upright by Adam Hinshelwood.
Billy Sharp, by name and nature, was initially denied from the rebound by the smart reflexes of Wayne Henderson before slotting his tenth of the season.
Wilkins, worried Albion were not retaining possession well enough, introduced Jake Robinson on the left for the second half at the expense of Williams and moved Cox inside in a switch from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3.
Robinson could have scored almost immediately when Tommy Fraser put him through, keeper Joe Murphy blocking his shot with the incredibly handsome Alex Revell screaming in vain for a cross.
It was not costly. Seven minutes into the restart the attack-minded Whing beat his man with ease, cut inside and delivered a low cross towards the near post which Gary Hart helped on its way into the far corner.
It was a happy ending to quite a week for Hart, who had been dropped to the bench for the home debacle against Blackpool and then played for the reserves at Chichester.
"Football's funny," he said. "One minute you feel you are out of it, the next you are called upon and you just have to get your head around it and get on with the job.
"It always helps if the opposition have a player sent-off but we've had two of our best results after going down to ten men (Rotherham and Millwall), so it's not easy. Dean changed things at half-time and it worked. In training we went back to basics, just working as hard as we can. We were really worked up for the game, because we were on a losing streak and wanted to get out of it as quickly as possible. I thought we were absolutely tremendous."
None more so than Revell, Whing and Hinshelwood, making his first start of the season alongside the dependable Guy Butters.
Henderson was so well protected by a previously porous defence that he barely had a save to make.
Hearts were briefly in mouths when he dropped an overhead cross by ex-Seagull Andy Crosby into his own net during Scunthorpe's late onslaught but he was clearly barged by muscular substitute Steve Torpey and the unpopular Deadman rightly ruled it out.
Dick Knight must act now in two key areas to give Dean Wilkins the support he deserves.
The chairman needs to fund an addition to the management staff.
Wilkins and his assistant Dean White have been doing the job of four men since the departures of Mark McGhee and Bob Booker.
Knight has insisted all along money is available. The real issue is whether it is enough to make a difference to a depleted and inexperienced squad.
The evidence, both past and present, indicates otherwise. McGhee, in an interview with the magazine Insight City News, said: "It's a myth that there are a lot of players out there that we could have attracted on loan.
"I repeatedly spoke to Dick Knight about players but we never had the money. I wanted to sign Stephen McPhail, Michael Chopra and Roger Myarse.
"We had nothing to make them come, apart from Bob Booker's warm and inviting mouth. All three are now playing for top of the Championship Cardiff."
Wilkins and White have so far brought in a teenage target man from Aston Villa's reserves (Sam Williams) and rightback Andrew Whing from Coventry.
It is a start. They each played leading roles in a surprising but richly deserved win, Williams inadvertently as the victim of the challenge which caused an early red card for Scunthorpe centre half Steve Foster and Whing as the supplier of both goals.
More new faces are still desperately needed, though, if Albion are to avoid a fight against relegation, preferably with proven track records rather than just promising kids from Premiership clubs.
Wilkins masterminded a notable triumph by making a couple of important changes.
All credit to him for, temporarily at least, abandoning his cultured principles for a back-to-basics policy which was the essence of the Seagulls' success.
He also made a clever substitution at half-time which re-established Albion's grip on the game after conceding an equaliser against the run of play.
Foster lasted only 17 minutes. Referee Darren Deadman reached straight for red for the fourth time in eight matches when he led with his arm in a challenge on Williams close to the touchline.
Albion took just five minutes to make their numerical supremacy tell, mighty midget Dean Cox stooping low to the ground to bounce in a header from Whing's inviting cross.
An interval lead looked assured until, three minutes from the break, a cross by the overlapping Lee Morris was headed against his own upright by Adam Hinshelwood.
Billy Sharp, by name and nature, was initially denied from the rebound by the smart reflexes of Wayne Henderson before slotting his tenth of the season.
Wilkins, worried Albion were not retaining possession well enough, introduced Jake Robinson on the left for the second half at the expense of Williams and moved Cox inside in a switch from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3.
Robinson could have scored almost immediately when Tommy Fraser put him through, keeper Joe Murphy blocking his shot with the incredibly handsome Alex Revell screaming in vain for a cross.
It was not costly. Seven minutes into the restart the attack-minded Whing beat his man with ease, cut inside and delivered a low cross towards the near post which Gary Hart helped on its way into the far corner.
It was a happy ending to quite a week for Hart, who had been dropped to the bench for the home debacle against Blackpool and then played for the reserves at Chichester.
"Football's funny," he said. "One minute you feel you are out of it, the next you are called upon and you just have to get your head around it and get on with the job.
"It always helps if the opposition have a player sent-off but we've had two of our best results after going down to ten men (Rotherham and Millwall), so it's not easy. Dean changed things at half-time and it worked. In training we went back to basics, just working as hard as we can. We were really worked up for the game, because we were on a losing streak and wanted to get out of it as quickly as possible. I thought we were absolutely tremendous."
None more so than Revell, Whing and Hinshelwood, making his first start of the season alongside the dependable Guy Butters.
Henderson was so well protected by a previously porous defence that he barely had a save to make.
Hearts were briefly in mouths when he dropped an overhead cross by ex-Seagull Andy Crosby into his own net during Scunthorpe's late onslaught but he was clearly barged by muscular substitute Steve Torpey and the unpopular Deadman rightly ruled it out.
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