Sam Northwood previews tonight’s Carabao Cup Second Round game against Rochdale.
Venue – Montgomery Waters Meadow
Competition – Carabao Cup Second Round
Kick off – 1945
Head to Head – Played 54, 17 Shrewsbury Town wins, 11 draws, 26 Rochdale wins
Town will hope to progress against League 2 side Rochdale who have had a mixed start to their campaign. Rochdale got handed a bye to the 2nd round due to Harrogate players testing positive for covid.
Last time the two clubs met was in March with Town winning 2-0 at Spotland with goals from Josh Daniels and Josh Vela.
Rochdale got off to a poor start in League 2 losing two and drawing one of their first three games, but confidence will now be high after they won 3-1 in an impressive performance away at Northampton. New manager Robbie Stockdale has been quiet in the window with only a handful of permanent transfers which includes ex Town flop Joel Coleman.
After a disappointing performance again Saturday, Town will hope to forget about league form for one night. They will hope to progress past round two of the EFL Cup for the first time since 2014/15 when they lost to Chelsea in the 4th round. New signing Khanya Leshabala is expected to start. It will also be interesting to see who starts in defence now Ebanks Landell is back from injury. Shaun Whalley could also start after his impressive display coming off the bench on Saturday.
Predicted XI’s
Shrewsbury Town
Maroši
Pennington
Ebanks Landell
Nurse
Bennett
Vela
Leshabela
Leahy
Bloxham
Udoh
Whalley
Rochdale
Lynch
Graham
O’Connell
Taylor
O’Keefe
Morley
Dooley
Done
Odoh
Andrews
Newby
Prediction – Shrewsbury Town 1-0 Rochdale
Sam Northwood
“Going Down The Oteley Road”
Going Down The Oteley Road 