Robbie Stockdale heaped praise on his Rochdale side as they dumped League One Shrewsbury out of the Carabao Cup.

Dale, who were relegated from the third tier last season, went ahead through a 68th-minute Jake Beesley penalty, which was awarded after Shrewbury’s Matthew Pennington was sent off.

Danny Cashman then sealed the win late on, and Stockdale said: “I am happy with the win, and we showed we have some talented players.

“Both sides were trying to play their ways in the first half, then I asked for an extra 15 or 20 per cent at half-time and we were very good second half.

“The sending off obviously helped us and not Shrewsbury, but we got into good positions several times, and we were dangerous.

“We had two young defenders out there, they did very well this evening against some dangerous players.

“You are only ever one win from turning things around and I am sure Steve and his staff know that, we just concentrated on ourselves tonight.”

Shrews boss Steve Cotterill insisted his players will stick together after a fifth defeat in six games in all competitions this season, which includes four league defeats in a row without scoring.

He said: “We’ve had a few of these tough nights at the moment. It is not dropping for us.

“We could have done with getting our noses in front but when we don’t score, the confidence wanes and it looks like the lads aren’t doing enough.

“That’s how it looks but unless you’ve ever been out there you don’t understand how the lads feel at the moment.

“Maybe we needed to hit rock bottom, but it hasn’t been a very good start.

“I feel for them because they are honest lads. It is tough at the moment but we will stick together and carry on working and hope things start to change for us.”