Shrewsbury Town and Dale played out a five goal thriller, with a larger than usual number of Dale fans making the pleasant journey down the A49 bouyed on by victories.

Shrewsbury Town and Dale played out a five goal thriller, with a larger than usual number of Dale fans making the pleasant journey down the A49 bouyed on by victories. Unfortunately, it finished the usual way with Dale on the losing side.

A larger than usual number of Dale fans flocked to Gaye Meadow, hoping that Dale could recreate the sort of form which saw them send Stoke City crashing in the AWS the previous week. It started out looking like they would do, but as has happened so many times this season, Dale got nothing from a match they should have won.

Dale stuck with the same side that beat Stoke, with a return to the bench of long term injury victim Dean Stokes. They started knocking the ball about with a bit of confidence, and everything was going to plan, when in the tenth minute Jason Peake put Dale ahead. There was a nice bit of interplay between Morris and Painter who received the ball back in the Shrewsbury penalty area with his back to goal, and a bit of pressure from a defender. He managed to knock the ball to Peakey who fired the ball home underneath the grey haired Shrews keeper Edwards (no relation).

The Shrews then stepped up a gear and for a while it seemed that Dale had brought the luck with them today as they escaped from a couple of near misses. The woodwork came into play on two occasions when it seemed that Shrewsbury had grabbed equalisers, but they were no to be. Perhaps Dale's fortune went when Keith Hill had to be brought off with a hamstring injury, with Dave Bayliss coming on to replace him. In view of Johnno's injury things could be looking bleak for the Dale defensive unit.

The equaliser came following a good run by striker Steele when the Dale defenders backed off him. Peakey managed to make an clever interception, but tried to football his way out of trouble, when a hoof up the field would have sufficed. Steele tackled Peakey, and fired home with the entire goal to aim at. The goal also resulted in the most annoying tannoy celebration. I have heard some bad ones in my time, eg Can Can at Carlisle, and various Gladiators wannabes, but here the tannoy man just continually shouts "Go,Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go......." At first I thought he had a stutter, but it was then followed up by some horrible seventies rock band, again in a Gladiators style. If anyone at our club is reading this, never ever have a tannoy celebration. Please!

A few minutes later, they were in front, when Steele fired a home a clever overhead kick with close attention from Andy Farrell. Again prompting more of the same hysterical outbursts from the tannoy man.

Dale were probably at fault for both of the goals because they had yet again sat back and allowed the opposition to get back into the game. I may be doing the Shrews a disservice there, but they never looked a decent side. We saw that against Stoke on Tuesday, the second goal really took the stuffing out of the other team.

Dale came back out for the second half and were looking keen on getting back into the match. We had the majority of the play in the second half and left probably feeling a little unlucky. We were certainly on top, but struggled to get anything to show for the play. Things were looking extremely grim, when the referee awarded Shrewsbury a penalty, when Mark Monington was adjudged to have pulled ex Dale loanee Mickey Brown's shirt. If this was a penalty, then I think you would find ten penalties being awarded in each game. It was never a foul and it certainly never impeded Brown in any way. Up stepped Steele to complete his hat trick when the little Welsh wizard did it again. Steele placed the ball above Edwards, who started diving to his right, before popping up a hand to tip it away. As if there was any doubt that he wouldn't save it. That's four penalties out of four he has saved this season. And still Bobby Gould ignores him. Fool.

This looked like it would give Dale a much needed boost in confidence to get back into the game and for a few minutes it looked like it had done the trick, but Brown won the ball, made a run with Monington backing off, and fired home from the edge of the box. 3-1.

Dale kept plugging away and were back in the game fifteen minutes from time when Morris headed home with a glance inside the six yard box to give Dale a fighting chance. The last fifteen minutes were spent looking for that equaliser which never came. We came very close on a few occasions, but the ball usually went wide of the post, with the Shrews keeper Edwards untroubled.

The ref finally blew his whistle after some time wasting antics by the home side at about 4:55, leaving Dale stuck in the middle of the bottom half. It now looks that any lingering play off hopes have gone. After the Brentford match, we had three easy games. Hartlepool (h), Shrewsbury (a) and then the Sky match Hull City at home. A minimum of seven points was required for any challenge to be made. With the upturn in fortunes of the Tigers, we could well be claiming none.

Dale: Edwards, Jones (Stuart), Sparrow, Hill (Bayliss), Monington, Farrell, Carden, Painter, Morris, Peake, Holt.
Dale goals: Peake and Morris

Photo: Action Images

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