MARK Beevers says Wanderers cannot use Gary Madine’s absence as an excuse for missing out on automatic promotion.

With two games remaining, the Whites’ destiny remains in their own hands despite a nervous 0-0 draw against Bury on Tuesday night.

Two points clear of Fleetwood, victory at Port Vale would be enough to see them go up IF Fleetwood fail to win.

But concern over the club’s record without talismanic target man Madine has magnified a sudden lack of goals. Wanderers have taken just four points from a possible 30 this season without Madine in their line-up, and have failed to score for their last three games since he injured a shoulder in victory at Southend.

But Beevers remains convinced there is enough in the Whites’ tank to see them over the finishing line, even if his team-mate fails to declare himself fit.

“I’m not a fan of stats,” he told The Bolton News. “They don’t tell the story a lot of the time.

“The stats might say we miss him but you sit down and look at the squad there’s more than enough out there to get a result.

“He is an out ball when he’s out there, just to be able to lift it to him and he can get it down and bring other players into play.

“If there are no passes on you can lift it to Gary and let him have a fight.

“But We’ve got good strikers, good attacking players, and there’s no reason someone can’t come in and do a job.”

The erosion of Wanderers’ lead on the chasing pack for promotion has set nerves jangling around the town but Beevers is urging fans to keep a sense of perspective.

“It’s still in our hands,” the defender said. “Five weeks ago if you’d have said two points ahead with two games to go everyone at the club would have taken it.

“It was only because we went on a mad run that we got ourselves into a comfortable position.

“I think we’ve played alright in the last few games. We haven’t played particularly badly, we haven’t conceded shed loads of goals, we just haven’t been putting them away.”