BURY defender Pablo Mills believes Saturday’s goalless stalemate at Adams Park will prove to be a valuable point in their quest for promotion.

A depleted Shakers side – missing suspended captain Jim McNulty – had to keep their focus after an 11-minute stoppage for a potentially serious neck injury to Wycombe striker Steve Craig.

But while they rode their luck, with the home side twice hitting the bar in stoppage time, Mills and his team-mates held on for a clean sheet that kept them in sixth place in the League Two table.

“There is no secret about what we are trying to do this season, we are trying to win promotion and I think we have started at a good pace and collected some good points,” said Mills – as Bury made it 11 points from six games, level with fifth-placed Wycombe.

“I think this is another good point away from home. This is a tough place to come, so in hindsight, when we look back at this game at the end of the season, I think we will be happy with the point.”

Mills had to keep himself, as well as his backline, together after inadvertently causing Craig’s injury scare.

The big striker, who it was confirmed after the match had suffered nothing more than concussion, left the field on a stretcher - conscious but wearing a neck brace.

“I stood my ground and he’s jumped early and sort of rolled across my back, so I didn’t see the initial fall,” explained Mills. “When the paramedics came on and they brought on the stretcher and started putting him in a neck brace everything just sort of stops for a minute and you start to worry about his health.

“But I thought we acquitted ourselves well after that to claim the clean sheet.

“We were very resilient - they have got the headers that have cannoned back off the bar but I thought we showed great desire to keep the ball out.”

Peter Murphy and then Matt McClure, who came on for Craig after play resumed on 70 minutes, both headed against the woodwork following a Wycombe corner in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

But goalkeeper Rob Lainton and his defenders did enough in a goalmouth scramble to deny the home side a clean sight of goal.

Conceding so late would have been harsh on Bury, who had had the clearest chances up until the closing stages.

Andrew Tutte hit the bar with a measured, curling shot from the edge of the box after only three minutes.

And Blues stopper Matt Ingram was hard pressed to turn behind a low Danny Mayor strike following a flowing counter attack.

Ingram also gifted Danny Rose a chance after the break when his fluffed clearance fell to the in-form Bury striker, but the 20-year-old was unable to extend his 100 per cent scoring record after hitting four goals in his previous four games since signing from Barnsley.

And while Wycombe came out strongest after the injury delay, an instinctive save low to his right by Lainton to deny Murphy, as well as the backs-to-the-wall defending at the death, ensured Bury’s unbeaten league run stretched to five league games.

Flitcroft paid tribute to Mills and his under-strength defensive unit for helping to claim the hard-earned point, and said with a little more calmness in the attacking third they could easily have left Adams Park with all three.

“I have missed a top-class performer (in Jim McNulty) but (centre-back pairing) Cam (Nathan Cameron) and Pabs (Pablo Mills) were outstanding,” he said.

“There was a massive time lapse in the game but we showed a focus after that and we dug in.

“Wycombe have had a very good start and have been able to produce some good, high energy, high octane football here.

“But we withstood it and when you do that you have got to make sure that in the real match-winning moments (at the other end) you produce and we’ve not done.

“First half is where we have got to win the game, but we will take positives out of this, keep moving forward, keep adding points and keep unbeaten because that is what the boys said after the game.

“We are unbeaten again and it’s a good feeling to be unbeaten.”

WYCOMBE WANDERERS: Ingram; Jombati, Pierre, Mawson, Jocobson; Cowan-Hall (Kretzschmar 90+10), Murphy, Rowe (Bloomfield 87), Wood; Hayes, Craig (McClure 70).

Not used: Richardson, Scowen, Walker, Holloway.

BURY: Lainton 8; Jones 7, Cameron 8, Mills 9, Hussey 7; Soares 6 (Holmes 87), Tutte 7, Etuhu 6, Mayor 6; Lowe 6 (Adams 7 72), Rose 7 (Poole 90+2).

Not used: Jalal, Sedgwick, Poshca.

Yellow cards: Wycombe Wanderers – Wood 90, Cowan-Hall 90+6. Bury – Jones 42.

Referee: Kevin Johnson.

Attendance: 3,483 (321 visiting).

Star man: Pablo Mills – The former Derby County defender is the man Bury turn to when times get tough. The more that is at stake, the more Mills seems to come to the fore, and Saturday was one of those games when the inexperienced players in the ranks needed his calming influence. He, more than any other player, could have been excused for being unsettled by the injury to Steven Craig but with captain Jim McNulty suspended, he rallied the troops and got them over the line to claim the clean sheet.