Bury boss Alan Knill was in a pragmatic mood after an entertaining draw at Underhill.

“I look at a point away from home as a good result,” he said. “There were chances for both sides”

Both sides carved out numerous opportunities to break the deadlock, but a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping kept the game scoreless.

Barnet opened brightly and Wayne Brown pulled off a series of excellent saves as Barnet’s top scorer, John O’Flynn and Clovis Kamdjo ,had good efforts on target.

Bury then dominated for long periods with Stephen Dawson in central midfield seeing a lot of the ball and influencing play.

Dawson and Brian Barry-Murphy were having the lion’s share of possession and as a consequence in the second half the home side felt the need to substitute both their central midfielders.

The strikers, Ryan Lowe and Andy Morrell, looked lively and alert and their intelligent runs off the ball often had the Barnet defence bewildered.

The Shakers came closest to scoring in the 21st minute when Lowe hit a post when well positioned and, late on, a sliced clearance by Kamdjo almost found his own net.

“We created a lot of chances and it just seems at the moment that we are not taking them” said Knill.

Good crisp early passing by the Shakers frequently opened up the Barnet defence who were forced to make desperate last minute interceptions to keep the Shakers at bay.

Despite good build-up play the Bury forwards lacked composure in the final third.

“It becomes a bit edgy this time of the season, all we need to do is relax a little bit, because some of the football we are playing is pretty good,” Knill added.

Barnet’s much-sought-after right winger Albert Adomah and Tom Newey enjoyed a keen contest all afternoon, with honours probably even the final whistle.

Bury have now failed to score in consecutive matches and Knill conceded: “A couple of times our final ball was a little bit too predictable where we could have cut the ball back better, but on the whole I felt we were pretty good today.”

Post-match, Barnet’s manager Ian Hendon felt that on current form Bury are probably the best side in League Two and expressed his satisfaction at a point from a match which sees Bury remain in the third automatic promotion spot.

Knill refused to be concerned that Bury had not scored in their last two fixtures and can point to an impressive month that has seen just one defeat.

“We’ve taken 14 points in February, so if I can say the same next month, then we’ll be going along fine,” he said.

“It’s important that we keep believing in what we do.”

Bury are next in action when they host play-off hopefuls host Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday.

BARNET: Cole 7, Devera 6, Kamdjo 7, Breen 6, Lockwood 6 (Gillet 5), Adomah 7, Micah Hyde 6 (Hughes 6), Livermore 6 (Deverdics 5), Jarrett 7, O’Flynn 7, Jake Hyde 6. Subs not used: O’Neill, Harrison, Deen, Carpenter.

BURY: Brown 7, Buchannan 7, Cresswell 6, Futcher 6, Newey 7, Worrall 6, Dawson 8, Barry-Murphy 7, Jones 6 (Racchi 6), Lowe 7 (Elliott 5), Morrell 7 (Bishop 7). Subs not used: Baker, Belford).

Attendance: 1,949 (399 Bury fans) Referee: Pat Miller (Bedfordshire)