Rochdale's home form is something to worry about. They've played four, won one drawn two and lost one.
But for the form of two lively youngsters brought on as substitutes late on it would probably have been lost two. In the short time they were on the field Patrick McCourt and Kevin Townson transformed things.
Rochdale had been labouring in vain against a ten-man defence without making anything like a serious impression. They were trailing to Jason van Blerk's 37th minute goal and they looked like going down.
But Townson and more especially McCourt changed it all round and a solid Shrewsbury defence began to wither.
McCourt was brought down by Peter Wilding and from the spot-kick which resulted their manager Paul Simpson equalised. After that there could have been a winner in it for Rochdale with both Townson and McCourt going close.
Shrewsbury concentrated on defence and after van Blerk had put them in front they did less and less as an attacking force and their defence was so sound that it looked as if they were going to collect all the points.
When Rochdale had equalised they did go out in search of a winner but Ian Stevens and Karl Murray both went close with van Blerk putting the frighteners on Rochdale as he went for a winner.
Perhaps a draw was about fair but manager Simpson said: "They had two shots the whole way through. I think we had a lot more than that and I also think that this was a much better display which deserved more than one point.
"We did not have a lot of luck one way or another, I think young Patrick McCourt made a difference when he came on. He's going to be a really awesome player."
Kevin Ratcliffe the Shrews manager added: "We defended well and I thought that we were going to get all three points.
"We concentrated on defence especially after we'd taken the lead. Rochdale are a very good side but we made them look ordinary."