Dale made it three wins on the trot, but also for the third game on the trot they certainly made things hard for themselves by giving the opposition as much chance as possible to snatch something from the game.

For the first time in a while, the crowds were up again at Spotland with almost 3000 turning up for the seasonal fixture. Not the greatest crowd in the world, but considering how crowds have dropped off in recent weeks since our goal drought, it good to see the fans coming back, especially taking the outcome into account. The visitors brought 374 to this fixture.

Dale began the game with the same side that finished the match at Carlisle two days previous. That meant a return to the starting eleven for the first time since the start of September for Graham Lancashire who stepped off the bench to take the place of Clive Platt who hadn't recovered from a knock picked up at Carlisle on Tuesday. Dean Stokes kept his left back position in place of Damon Searle.

The game started with Dale doing much of the pressing and keen to get an early goal, and the visitors were soon under some early pressure. Dale were attacking the Sandy Lane end in the first half and forced a number of corners at that end. Lancashire and Ellis were linking well and were a right handful at these set pieces. For all this early pressure, it was Shrewsbury who had the first real chance of the game when the ever lively ex Northwich striker Lee Steele turned and shot but saw his effort go wide of the left hand post.

However Dale were soon back on the attack and got the reward for their early game pressure. Tony Ellis, who had obviously offended the away supporters at some stage in his career, had forced his way into the Shrewsbury box, before putting in a great cross to Graham Lancashire who slid the ball past the grey haired Paul Edwards to put Dale one up from the edge of the six yard box.

Dale almost made it two within a couple of minutes when a fiercely hit shot proved too strong for the Shrews keeper and he saw the ball bobble out of his hands and out for the corner. If truth be told, he was quite pleased to see the ball go out for a corner.

Dale were well in control and had settled back. They were very comfortable with Shrewsbury doing nothing of any note. The Shrewsbury keeper Edwards had another tricky situation to deal with when a strongly hit back pass caused him all sorts of problems, and his attempted clearance sliced out for another corner.

For a while it seemed just a matter of time before Dale increased their lead, and the visiting keeper was certainly living dangerously. Following yet another dodgy back pass following Dale pressure, he was forced to dribble the ball out of the six yard box, past Lancashire.

The second half continued in much the same way that the first finished with Dale on top. The match was being played in exactly the way that the league table suggested it would be. There was absolutely no way back at all for the visitors, and Dale always looked the more likely team to score.

However, against the run of play, the visitors had 2 glorious chances, following a rare attack. The first effort rebounded off Neil Edwards' left hand post, and the follow up shot bounced off the cross bar. Edwards was beaten on both efforts and was counting his blessings when he saw the ball out of play.

Dale soon got the second that their pressure deserved, following a good bit of passing football. Jason Peake played a neat 1-2 with Tony Ellis on the edge of the visitors box, before firing the ball home to put Dale two nil up.

From here on in, it was just a case of whether Dale would increase their lead. Steve Parkin made a couple of substitutions in a bid to keep the players fresh over the busy Xmas period. Tony Ford was brought on for Gary Jones, meaning Dave Flitcroft returned to the central midfield area from his wide right slot, and Chris Bettney was brought on for the tiring Graham Lancashire.

Dale almost made it three soon after but Chris Bettney was rightly adjudged to have made a push in the box. Within seconds everything started to go pear shaped for Dale.

Shrewsbury went straight up the other end, and put a cross in from their right hand side, and with the Dale defence briefly falling asleep, Shrews sub Carl Murray poked the ball past the static Edwards in the Dale goal to give the visitors a fighting chance.

After this it was panic stations for Dale and they were certainly struggling to hold onto their lead, and the visitors can count themselves unfortunate not to have snatched something in the worrying last 15 minutes. They upped their tempo, and came within inches of equalising when striker Kevin Jobling fired the ball across the face of the goal. It looked for all the world like it was going in.

Dale had plenty of opportunities to get the ball into the other half of the pitch, but failed to hold the ball up when they got there, which allowed the Shrews to get back on the attack as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Dale managed to hold on to their victory which they just about deserved from their play in the first 75 minutes, but they really came so close to blowing it in the last fifteen minutes. There was certainly added pressure knowing that they had not got the points they should have at home. They looked a lot more comfortable when holding on in the last few minutes at Carlisle on Sunday.

Anyway, the three points are in the bag, and the win puts us nicely into the top ten, sat ninth with a game in hand on every team that is above us. Not a bad place to go into the new year with, eh?

Dale: Edwards, Evans, Stokes, Hill, Bayliss, Flitcroft, Jones (Ford), Peake, Atkinson, Lancashire (Bettney), Ellis 

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