Salford lost ground on the promotion places as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by a determined Scunthorpe.

Abo Eisa equalised from the penalty spot after Salford captain Tom Clarke’s opener in a tight contest at The Peninsula Stadium.

The home side should have taken the lead when top scorer Ian Henderson flashed an early free header over the bar while the Iron wasted a great chance of their own when Jordan Hallam’s scuffed one-on-one effort was cleared off the line by Ibou Touray.

The Ammies broke the deadlock after 33 minutes when Touray’s corner was palmed out by back-peddling Iron goalkeeper Mark Howard and Clarke was on hand to hook in.

Ten minutes later it was all square as Eisa went down under Di’Shon Bernard’s challenge and sent Vaclav Hladky the wrong way from the spot.

A cagey second half was punctuated by a string of substitutions before the hosts almost grabbed an 80th-minute winner when sub Mani Dieseruvwe crashed a header off the post from Ash Hunter’s whipped corner.