FOR the second match in a row, Bury had a fellow play-off hopeful on the ropes but failed to apply a knockout blow.

It was a different story to Saturday’s draw at home to Exeter, when the Shakers missed good chances to take all three points.

At the Lamex Stadium they came up against an under-strength Stevenage side content to get men behind the ball and play for the point.

Bury also had to contend with a rutted pitch that consistently cut up under foot, leaving them unable to soften up their opponents with their usual punchy passing game.

Rather than jabbing Graham Westley’s men into submission it fell to dead-ball specialists Andrew Tutte and Chris Hussey to find a way through their stubborn defence.

But they were frustrated by heroic saves from Stevenage stopper Chris Day.

The goalless stalemate left both managers with a crumb of comfort, Westley’s outfit ending a run of three straight defeats while Bury boss David Flitcroft was impressed by his side’s renewed resolve.

A ninth clean sheet of the campaign made it just one defeat in six matches, but after claiming just two points from a possible nine, Bury dropped out of the play-off places.

Plymouth’s win at Wycombe pushed them into the top seven at their expense, with the Shakers dropping a place to eighth on goal difference, leaving Flitcroft still searching for a fail safe formula to turn dominant displays into maximum points.

“It’s a dead-ball game,” he said.

“You look at the two opportunities. What a fantastic save the keeper has pulled off from Tuttey’s free kick. He has pulled it back from almost behind him. Tuttey can’t have hit it any better.

“And Hussey wrapped it round and it’s looked like it had beaten him, so another fantastic save.

“Scoring either of those efforts would have made it a different game. I don’t know what Stevenage would have had to offer if we had gone a goal up.

“We have got to find a formula and different ways to win a game, but certainly we have earned a fantastic clean sheet and a point.”

The salient statistic of a dire first half was the number of balls that successfully bid for freedom from the Lamex Stadium.

Four cleared the confines of the low-slung stands, and worryingly they did not disappear as a result of hefty clearances but attempts on goal.

Neither set of players were able to muster any quality in the final third from open play.

Bury’s best effort of the first 45 minutes came in the opening stages when Craig Jones lost control of a cross from the right and Day had to back-peddle to tip it on to the roof of the net.

Danny Mayor showed a few moments of urgency, drifting inside to fire off a couple of shots from distance, one that he dragged wide and the other that bobbled into Day’s hands after a deflection.

Flitcroft’s side did at least look assured at the back, with captain Nathan Cameron partnered by former skipper Jim McNulty at centre-back after Adam El-Abd was ruled out with a hamstring injury.

Bury keeper Nick Pope was equal to any efforts that breached the Shakers’ backline, getting down well to smother a shot from Bruno Andrade.

The Shakers started the second half much the better side and kept Stevenage penned in for the opening 15 minutes.

Hussey troubled the home backline with a series of vicious inswinging corners that Bury were unable to convert.

Danny Rose, back in the starting line-up for the first time since December 13, ploughed a lonely furrow upfront.

He did have the ball in the back of the net on the hour after getting on the end of a one-two with Tom Soares but his effort was rightly disallowed for offside.

With the surface making a goal from open play almost impossible, free kicks in dangerous areas assumed even greater significance.

And Tutte very nearly made one count in the 75th minute when his effort from 30 yards looked destined for the top corner before Day pulled off an outstanding one-handed save and Soares’ follow-up shot was deflected over.

Second-half substitute Hallam Hope blasted a shot wide from inside the box before Stevenage sprang out of defence to launch a late raid, but Chris Whelpdale’s strike was always rising.

Day then produced another smart save to palm away a Hussey free kick at his near post before getting his body behind a Joe Riley shot from inside the box to end the goalmouth action.

But while Bury were unable to add to their four victories on the road this campaign, Flitcroft left Hertfordshire for the long trip home satisfied that his players had at least won a moral victory.

“We’ve probed and tried to move the ball well and they have got 10 outfield players behind it,” he said.

“They got a round of applause for having a shot in the 78th minute – the home team.

“We have tried to win a football match, I don’t believe Stevenage have.

“Of course I would have been delighted with three points, but the clean sheet pleases me and the structure of the team was good.

“So I am proud of the team and that point takes us nicely into Saturday’s game at Cheltenham.”