Fortune-West bumps Dale back down to earth

Shrewsbury Town 3 (Fortune-West 48, Edwards 65, Drummond 78)
Rochdale 0

Rochdale’s nine match unbeaten run came to an end in emphatic style as playoff hopefuls Shrewsbury dominated the game in every department and struck three second half goals without reply to secure a deserved victory which moved them above Wycombe and into seventh position in the table.

Anyone who missed Dale’s annihilation of Stockport at the weekend would have been forgiven for wondering how on earth they had managed such a feat as the visitor’s first meaningful attempt on goal, when Dale sub Chris Dagnall’s header was superbly tipped onto the crossbar by home goalkeeper Chris Mackenzie, came when Rochdale were already three goals in arrears. It was Mackenzie’s only real test of the evening on what was very much a case of after the Lord Mayor’s show for Rochdale.

However, to focus on Dale’s failings would not do justice to an excellent Shrewsbury performance, that would have troubled any side in the division, that stamped their playoff credentials with authority. Shrewsbury were dominant all over the pitch. Their centre-halves did not give the man who Stockport manager Jim Gannon declared ‘unplayable’ at the weekend, Glen Murray, a sniff, their midfield bossed proceedings whilst the front two of Leo Fortune-West and Derek Asamoah caused no end of problems for the Dale back line.

Gary Peters, the Shrewsbury manager, was delighted to get such a performance, combined with the result, from his players. He said: “I think that might be the best we’ve performed all season, we were so solid in the first half and we know what Rochdale have done recently so we had to defend properly. We did that in the first half, looked solid, created chances and in the second half we took those chances.”

Plenty of warning shots were fired across the Dale bows in the first half but Matthew Gilks in the Dale goal was only tested in the opening minutes when David Perkins header backwards bisected Stanton and the goalkeeper and Gilks did well to block Dave Edwards shot as he stole in, whilst Perkins atoned for his error by blocking the follow up off the line.

If Shrewsbury had shown their bark in the first half, then in the second they showed their bite and they never looked back after Fortune-West opened the scoring in spectacular fashion. The tall striker outpaced Nathan Stanton to a long ball, an achievement in itself, and caught the bouncing ball superbly on the volley twenty-five yards from goal so that it dipped over Gilks and into the net - breathtaking. Fortune-West had been causing problems all night with his aerial ability but this goal showed a completely different side to his game.

Rochdale manager Keith Hill he was not about to take defeat lying down and immediately introduced two strikers from the bench to try and give his side some potency, but Dale had caught the home side on a particularly good day.

Edwards scored the second; a looping header from Asamoah’s cross that again went over the head of Gilks and into the net, and the win was sealed with a little over ten minutes remaining when Stewart Drummond was left woefully unmarked to head home Ben Davis’ corner.

If Saturday’s win had been the best performance of Keith Hill’s tenure then this was certainly the worst. Dale were outplayed and outclassed on the night and they never looked capable of doing anything about it.

One slip up in sixteen games is still an excellent return from the new Dale boss and all will be forgiven if Dale can pick up points from their next two home games, both against promotion chasing teams in Lincoln City and Swindon Town respectively.

Man of the Match – Derek Asamoah – Fortune-West will grab the headlines for his superb goal but the all round skill of Asamoah was a joy to watch. Dale’s flair players had an off night but at the other end Asamoah was causing no end of problems with his pace and trickery. He didn’t score but he was the perfect foil for his team-mates.

Attendance: 4,363

Shrewsbury: MacKenzie, Hall, Langmead, Hope, Ashton, Davies, Drummond (Jones 83), Edwards, Tierney, Asamoah (Symes 80), Fortune-West (Cooke 80).
Subs not used: Shearer, Burton.

Rochdale: Gilks, Ramsden, Stanton, Goodall, Perkins, Muirhead, Doolan, Crooks (Turnbull 64), Rundle (Reet 55), Murray, Dodds (Dagnall 55).
Subs not used: Rigby, McArdle.

Booked: Reet, Perkins.

Attempts (on target): Shrewsbury 15 (7) Rochdale 7 (3)
Free kicks: Shrewsbury 20 Rochdale 18
Offside: Shrewsbury 3 Rochdale 2
Corners: Shrewsbury 10 Rochdale 3

Referee: R Booth.