Same old Rochdale, always winning. Same old Holty, always scoring. It was another win for Dale, this time away at Shrewsbury Town and yet another goal for Holt. Full report and ratings online now.

Same old Rochdale, Always winning!  That was the shout from the away at Gay Meadow last night as Dale scored yet another win.  It's got to the point where I have to ask people how many games we have won in a row, I keep losing count!  It's even got to the point where goals are coming from the most unlikely sources, stand up Mr Tait! 

With seasonal dryness giving the Gay Meadow a flood free environment, Dale made the ridiculously National Lampoon Christmas Vacation style journey down the lovely A49 (what has an inflatable 12 foot Polar Bear got to do with Christmas?) for what might be our last ever visit to Shrewsbury's Gay Meadow ground, depending on whether the new ground will be ready for the start of next season. (These are the views of Col, I have nothing to do with these comments as I think the large scale Xmas decorations are marvellous! - Chaff)

It's certainly a ground that we'll miss, and given ten years or so when every ground in the Country is on some PC World style industrial estate, people will rightly look back on grounds like this as being what proper football is all about, though the loss of Gay Meadow will surely be the final and long awaited departure of fences from English football.

Dale were forced into making a change for the game as Scott Warner was drafted into the midfield to replace the injured Gary Jones.  Other than that it was an unchanged team from the one that defeated Stevenage and Boston in the weeks previous.  Matt Gilks remained in net, we had a back four of Wayne Evans, Tony Gallimore, Greg Heald and Gareth Griffiths.  We had a midfield consisting of Jamie Clarke, Ernie Cooksey and Scott Warner with Leo Bertos dropping back from his forward position alongside Paul Tait and Grant Holt.  The bench consisted of Neil Edwards, Daryl Burgess, Alan Goodall, Taiwo Atieno and Leighton McGivern.

The main topic of conversation in the opening few minutes of the game was about how we'd be happy to take a point from the game. Shrews' manager Gary Peters had done his scouting of Dale over the weekend at Stevenage, and it was clear that he thought the way to get a win against Dale was to hit us early, and to flood the midfield. It nearly worked, as for the first two minutes or so, we were stretched all over the park.

As the game went on, Dale got into it a bit more and created their first chance on 12 minutes when Clarke found Holt in the box but it was easy for Vernon Kay to cling on to.  The Shrewsbury goalkeeper was an absolute spitting image of the third biggest celebrity to come out of Bolton, Vernon Kay and the away fans certainly made it known to him (The other 2 celebrities being Peter Kay, who was stood near us as a steward, and Sheephead!)

Paul Tait was next to go close for Dale as he met a Holt cross but he failed to direct his header on target and that was about it for the first half in the way of chances.  The two teams went into the half time break at 0-0.

Yet again, the second half proved to be much better for Dale and the deadlock was broken on 53 minutes thanks to a goal by Paul Tait, yes, you read it right, Paul Tait!  He is off the mark for the league and I was absolutely delighted for him as he put in a very hardworking performance last night.  Some superb work from Grant Holt which ended in a back-heel style through ball set up Tait who was about 8 yards out before very coolly slotting it past Howie in the Shrews net to make it 1-0 to the Dale.

Shrewsbury continued to press when they could and Luke Rodgers had a good chance to put the home side back on level terms as he used his pace to get forward and he cut inside before getting in a weak effort that was simple for Gilks to deal with.

"We need another goal" was the call from a certain fan behind me and that's just what we got on 66 minutes.  Holt was showing why he is being compared to Sir Reg all the time and he managed to win a corner when his shot was saved by Vernon.  The resulting corner was punched by Vernon but only as far as Scott Warner who headed the ball back and it bounced off the crossbar and landed in a great position for Holt who made no mistake in scoring and it was 2-0 to Rochdale.  It was Holt's 15th goal of the season which now sees him top the goal-scoring table for the Division.

Shrewsbury continued in search of a breakthrough but it never came thanks to good goalkeeping from Gilks and good defending from the likes of Griff and Heald.  Martin O'Connor, who was Shrewsbury's best player on the night I thought, got a good shot away but Gilks made a very good save down to his right to keep it at 2-0.

The game finished 2-0 to the Dale who now sit just one place outside the playoffs and above bury.

Shrewsbury supporters shouldn't get too disheartened by this result. Last they beat Dale, they failed to win a league game for the next 18 months. They should be just as pleased by the result as we were!

Dale made it six wins on the trot for the first time since 1969 with what turned out to be a relatively easy victory in the end, though it could have been very different had the home side been able to turn early pressure into chances.

Player Ratings:

Matt Gilks 7 Dealt with everything very well, yet another clean sheet

Wayne Evans 7 Good game for Evo I thought, defended well against a quick attack

Tony Gallimore 7 See Evans

Greg Heald 7 He and Griff were a solid unit that rarely looked like they were going to be beaten. 

Gareth Griffiths 7 See Heald

Jamie Clarke 7 Another good game for Clarkey.  Passing was good and he looked very comfortable on the ball

Scott Warner 6 Not bad, assisted Holt's goal and got stuck in but his passing was a little off

Ernie Cooksey 6 Thought he was very poor in the first half but improved in the second

Leo Bertos 7 Did alright first half but came to life when we were in the lead, the skills came out and he looked confident as the game went on.

Paul Tait 7 He's scored at last!!!  Well played to the big man, deserved it and may it be the first of many!

GRANT HOLT 8 Excellent again, he set one up and scored yet another goal.

Sub:  

Taiwo Atieno 6 Not on long enough to have an impact

Photo: Action Images

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