Rochdale 2 - 1 Shrewsbury Town

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Ian Henderson scored Dale's first goal

Rochdale made it 10 home league wins in a row with a narrow victory over Shrewsbury Town at The Crown Oil Arena.

Ian Henderson set Rochdale on their way to victory with a cool finish inside four minutes.

Steven Davies doubled the lead just short of the half hour mark in controversial circumstances.

Shrewsbury did get a consolation late on to set up a slightly nervous ending but Dale saw out the remaining minutes with ease to move within six points of top spot.

After the Boxing Day triumph over Chesterfield, Dale manager Keith Hill opted for the same starting eleven as Rochdale looked to maintain their impressive home form of nine straight league wins.

Despite their lowly league position it was Shrewsbury who carved out the first chance of the game when Shaun Whalley used his pace to out strip the Dale defence but with only Conrad Logan to beat, the Dale goalkeeper made a great block to keep him out.

That miss was to prove crucial as just seconds later, Dale took the lead. Former Dale defender Olly Lancashire’s clearance hit Steven Davies and the ball spun through to Henderson who curled into the bottom corner for his third goal in two games.

The goal didn’t seem to upset Shrewsbury who again used pace to get in behind the Dale back line. Whalley raced down the right side and when faced with the onrushing Logan, opted to dink the ball over him but his shot went across the face of goal.

Dale’s second came on 28 minutes and it’s a goal that will have anybody of a Shrewsbury persuasion up in arms for a long time to come. Leutwiler came and gathered a bouncing ball with Henderson challenging the Swiss born keeper and appearing to knock the ball out of his hands leaving Davies with the easiest of goals as he tapped into the unguarded net.

The second half wasn’t as frantic as the first with Shrewsbury seeing plenty of the ball without really troubling Logan in the Dale net.

That said they did come close 20 minutes from time, Toney beat the offside trap before clipping over Logan; Bunney and McNulty between them getting back to clear off the line.

Rochdale had chances to put the game beyond their opponents but couldn’t find the finishing touches.

Rafferty’s snap shot was well kept out by Leutwiler.

Bunney missed a glorious chance when he met a Joe Thompson cross at the back post.

Those missed opportunities could have proved crucial when Toney halved the deficit with four minutes remaining. The pacey striker stole in to race away from McNulty and finished well.

Shrewsbury threw everything at Dale in the closing stages but Dale managed to see out the remainder of the game to cement their place in the top six as they move into the new year in fantastic form.

Rochdale: Logan, Rafferty, Keane, McNulty, Bunney, Camps (c)(Allen 85), Lund, Rathbone (Mendez-Laing 85), Andrew, Davies (Thompson 56), Henderson.
Subs: (not used) Lillis, Canavan, Noble-Lazarus, Cannon.

Shrewsbury: Leutwiler, Grimmer, Lancashire, El-Abd (c), Sadler, Whalley, Ogogo, Black (Deegan 75), Brown (Waring 76), Dodds, Toney.
Subs: (not used) O’Brien, Smith, Halstead, Ebanks-Blake, Jones.

Referee: Mr RM Clark
Assistants: Mr B Cropp and Mr B Khatib
Fourth Official: Mr M Duncan

Attendance: 3,594