It's the most wonderful time of the year, the beginning of the football season and what better place to start than Gay Meadow. A full match report along with player ratings is online.

Rochdale kicked off the 2005-06 season with a very welcome three points away at Shrewsbury Town thanks to a first half Grant Holt goal.

Steve Parkin started off with the team that we had expected.  Ernie Cooksey was missing through injury and he was replaced by the much improved Neil Brisco.  Matt Gilks was in net with Jamie Clarke, Gareth Griffiths, Jon Boardman and Tony Gallimore in defence.  Lee Cartwright, Gary Jones, Neil Brisco and Tommy Jaszczun were in midfield with Grant Holt and Rickie Lambert up front.  Danny Woodhall, Alan Goodall, Scott Warner, Ben Kitchen and Blair Sturrock were the substitutes for the game.

The game started off in a fairly quick fashion and Jamie Clarke almost let in Shrewsbury with a a mistake but the ball was cleared by the Dale defence.

Dale began to press more and had a good chance from a Tommy J corner.  He crossed to the edge of the box where Lambert was waiting and he struck a very sweet volley which looked destined for the bottom corner but it was blocked and rebounded to Griffiths whose effort went over the bar.

Rochdale went 1-0 after just fifteen minutes and it came from a familiar source.  A huge kick from Sgt Gilko in the Dale goal found Grant Holt in the Shrewsbury penalty box.  He made some space by barging a defender out of the way in a typical Holt style and struck to the near post which the Shrewsbury keeper never expected and it ended up in the back of the net to make it 1-0 to Rochdale.  It also sparked off chants of "We are top of the league say we are top of the league!"

Shrewsbury were getting into the game more with the wingers always looking to create things and they should have equalised when Mark Stallard had a free header in the box but it was easy for Sgt Gilko to collect.  Jamie Clarke was also on hand a couple of minutes later to block a shot from Ashton.

Lee Cartwright should have done better with an effort towards the end of the first half when he beat his man and stormed into the box but his shot lacked power and Hart made a relatively simple save.

The half time whistle came and Dale went into the interval 1-0 up.

Shrewsbury nearly equalised four minutes into the second half when Jon Boardman made a terrible error which put Stallard in but Gilks was out quickly to make a very good save.

Gary Jones went very close to doubling Rochdale's lead when he got on the end of a Lambert cross at the near post but the captains effort went only a couple of centimetres wide of the near post.

Rochdale went close again shortly after that when Rochdale's forgotten man Neil Brisco smashed an effort goalwards from twenty yards after being set up by Lambert but the former Port Vale midfielder's effort was well saved by Joe Hart who tipped it over the bar.

Gareth Griffiths should have done better with an effort as well.  A Jaszczun corner was swung in and Griffiths was allowed the space to get a powerful header in but it flew over the bar.

With fifteen minutes left, Rickie Lambert, who had been quiet for most of the match, was replaced by Steve Parkin's newest signing Blair Sturrock.

Shrewsbury missed an absolutely glorious chance with not long to go.  The ball fell to Langmead in the box and he was unmarked and he tried a volley which I'd already presumed it was going in but he screwed it horribly wide to the shock and relief of the Dale faithful.  This totally summed up the Shrewsbury performance.

There was nearly an equaliser late on when Griffiths and Clarke misjudged the flight of the ball to let in Langmead but Clarke did well to get in another block to keep Dale in the lead.

The final whistle was blown and Dale secured an opening day victory for the first time since 2002 under Paul Simpson.  Roll on Tuesday night!

Matt Gilks 7 Good performance from Sgt Gilko.  Never looked in any trouble and made one excellent save

Jamie Clarke 6 Passing wasn't bad but he got caught out a couple of times

Tony Gallimore 7 Another impressive game for Galli.  Some excellent passing and looked solid

Gareth Griffiths 6 Got caught out once but looked fairly solid other than that

Jon Boardman 6 Good first half, strong in the air but didn't look particularly convincing in the second half

Lee Cartwright 7 I thought he did well, showed his experience with several clever moves, should have done better with his chance in the first half though

Tommy Jaszczun 7 Very impressive I thought, his long range passing was fantastic at times and he looked our second best player behind Brisco

Gary Jones 7 Worked very hard and got involved in a lot of Dale moves

NEIL BRISCO 8 Excellent from Brisco.  He looked solid in midfield and his passing was good.  Looks twice the player he was last season.

Rickie Lambert 6 Quiet game for Rickie, was involved in a couple of moves but not much else and was subbed in the second half

Grant Holt 7 Very good performance.  Scored his first goal of the season but also collected his first booking of the season.

Sub:  

Blair Sturrock 7 Came on and looked lively

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls