Dale were cruelly denied a point in injury-time at Gay Meadow in a top of the table battle. A goal from Luke Rodgers helped knock Dale off top spot and put his team Shrewsbury there instead.

What can be said, Dale simply didn't deserve to lose. Dale's team was patched up and sent out on a mission, to at least get a point. And it looked as though we were about to do it, but we were so cruelly denied by a goal that should not of been.

Dale's patched up team saw us revert back to a 4-5-1 formation with Platt playing the lone strikers role. Flitcroft was back in the middle of the park, and Doughty had recovered from his injury on Tuesday to play at left back. The subs bench had two 17 year olds, an 18 year old, someone we had never heard of, and a man who hasn't kicked a ball in Division 3 for almost 18 months!

The game itself was a bit of a scrappy affair. Shrewsbury looked a capable side, but in all honesty we really should of beat them. I am sure that with a first team out we would of done so, and comfortably, but lets not make excuses, we had the players out there and they didn't get us the win.

Shrewsbury did have the better of the chances in the game, a couple of saves from Gilkes though kept them at bay. Nigel Jemson also did his best to stop the home side scoring by deflected a goal-bound header over the bar for a goal kick! Gary Jones at the other end for Dale had a great opportunity to score, but somehow when one-on-one with tubby keep Cartwright he missed his kick completely and the ball went out for a goal kick.

The second half was certainly more entertaining than the first, and play flowed from end to end. Luke Rodgers stormed passed Gareth Griffiths but was up-ended. The Shrewsbury fans called for a red-card, but Bayliss was covering so the yellow produced was right. In all fairness to the referee he didn't have that bad a game, but one moment of either blindness or ineptitude cost Dale all three points.

With about 15 minutes left a hopeful ball into the box was aimed at Platt who was locking horns with Redmile. The Shrews defender went to ground and in doing so he knocked the ball away from Platt with his hand. The referee somehow completely missed it and waved play-on much to the annoyance of the Dale following behind the goal, who had a clear view of the incident.

Worse was to come for Dale though as we were to be punished by the failure of a referee to spot a clear breach of the rules. For some strange reason as well there was 4 minutes added on at the end of the game, the trainers hadn't even been on the pitch. After a minute had gone, Dave Bayliss went down with a head injury and we played the ball out. Now most teams in sporting behaviour would give it back to our keeper, but not Shrewsbury, instead they unsportingly played it out for a throw-in deep into our half. We failed to get the ball clear and Luke Rodgers scored a low drive to give the Shrews all three points.

As a result of this the away terrace saw some scenes which we thought had long been forgotten at Dale games. A few fans were becoming a bit incensed with the Shrews keeper Cartwright for his cocky attitude, and there was clashes between stewards, police and a number of Dale fans, before one fan who shall remain nameless was escorted away. It had all gotten too much for some after seeing such injustices on the pitch during the game.

Well all in all our patched-up team did alright. We have lost two in a row though, any cause for concern? In my opinion not at all. Today we were the better team, and this season asides from the second half at Hull, no team we have played has looked as good as, or better than we know we can play. Sorry Shrewsbury fans, but today you got lucky. Call it sour grapes if you want, I don't care, I'm just another biased Dale reporter!

Photo: Action Images

Derby County Polls