On an emotional afternoon at Spotland, Dale came back from behind to claim a valuable point to ruin Paul Simpson's return to Spotland ahead of their League Two play-off semi-final against Darlington.

Before the game, there was a minute's applause for David Flitcroft's father who sadly passed away earlier in the week and in the opening 10 minutes, an under-strength Dale, presumably with one eye on the play-off 1^st leg tie against Darlington, struggled to get a foothold in the game and it looked like they were getting caught up in the emotions.  Too many loose balls and too many long balls meant that Rochdale was chasing the game. 

They could have gone behind as early as the 6^th minute when dangerman and Shrewsbury captain: - Ben Davies progressed down the right hand side and floated in a good ball into the box only for Constable to blaze over from 6 yards out.  Another chance came to Constable a minute later but Holness came to Dale's rescue to put in a good block.

On 21 minutes, ex-Bury man, Marc Pugh's moment of brilliance almost put Shrewsbury ahead.  He flicked the ball up, turned and fired in a cracking volley but luckily for Dale, it was straight at Lee who saved comfortably.  And just a minute later, a throw-in for Dale which was taken by Thompson almost gave Dale the lead.  The ball landed at Dagnall who dummied past two defenders and fired in a ball across the box and it confused Marc Tierney who hit the ball onto the crossbar.

It was Shrewsbury who took the lead.  A terrific free-kick from Davies gave Asa Hall a chance to put them into lead which he accepted with a bullet header.

Early in the 2^nd half, however, Dale equalised when, on 54 minutes, a simple ball into the box from right-back Ramsden was spilled twice by giant keeper: - Bevan and this allowed Dagnall to put the ball into the empty net.

Comedy moment of the season arrived on 87 minutes when the referee booked Muirhead and then gave him the red card thinking he was the number 15: - Joe Thompson.  However after consultation with the linesman, he rescinded the red card and allowed Muirhead to stay on the pitch.

All in all, a fair result and the performance of Thompson and fellow youngster: - Bowyer, who was making his debut, will give manager Keith Hill food for thought.

By Hassan Khan