ROCHDALE helped Keith Hill celebrate his third anniversary as manager with this crushing win to show just why they are League Two's Christmas No1.

It may be the pantomime season, but the quality of Rochdale's performance was no laughing matter for a lacklustre Shrewsbury who were comfortably brushed aside with two goals apiece from Craig Dawson and Chris O'Grady.

And now, much to Hill's delight, it's not so much: 'He's behind you' but 'they're all behind you', as Rochdale sit seven points clear at the top.

"We've come an awful long way in three years," said Hill.

"We've forged a seven-point gap at the top of the table and it lays down a challenge for other teams to catch us up. But while we are playing the kind of football we have been producing in recent weeks, and if we can retain this squad, we have an opportunity to challenge for a top-three finish.

"All the players were superb and the 4-0 scoreline was scant reward for their efforts."

Hill will now be hoping he can keep those players together as the vultures begin to circle before the January transfer window.

But after goal-scoring performances from his two star hit-men, he will have a job on his hands.

Dawson smashed in the first from Tom Kennedy's corner after just seven minutes. O'Grady volleyed in the second before half-time before Dawson rose highest to head home another Kennedy corner to make it 3-0 after 52 minutes.

And O'Grady rounded off the scoring after Shrewsbury keeper David Button spilled a free-kick.

ROCHDALE: Heaton 7, Wiseman 7, Kennedy 8, Stanton 7, Dawson 9, Atkinson 7, Thompson 7 (Higginbotham 71, 7), Taylor 7, Kennedy 7, Dagnall 8, O'Grady 9 (Glover 80, 6).

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