BURY were held to hard-fought goalless draw away to Coventry on a frustrating evening at the Ricoh Arena last night.

The Shakers dominated from start to finish but were unable to break down the resilient Sky Blues defence.

Greg Leigh had the pick of Bury's 18 shots on goal, but he was denied by a fine stop from former Shakers goalkeeper Reice Charles-Cook.

David Flitcroft made two changes from the 2-1 defeat to Gillingham at the weekend but kept faith with his 4-3-3 formation.

Kelvin Etuhu injected fresh energy into the centre of midfield in place of Jacob Mellis, who dropped to the bench.

Nicky Clark was replaced by Danny Mayor, who made his first league start since breaking his foot against Southend in May.

But with only 16 minutes on the clock Neil Danns was fouled midway inside his own half and was unable to continue.

The midfielder hobbled off the pitch accompanied by physio Paul Morgan, with Mellis his replacement.

Ruben Lameiras had the first shot of the game for the hosts when he found space on the edge of the box but fired across goal and wide.

In the 23rd minute, left-back Leigh burst down the left, played a one-two with Mellis before striking a low effort towards the bottom corner but Charles-Cook was equal to it.

The Shakers dominated possession in the first half but were limited to strikes from outside the box, with the closest coming from Mayor.

The winger first came alive in first-half stoppage time when he beat two defenders before deflecting a shot into the hands of Charles-Cook.

From the resulting play the hosts broke with Chris McCann, but the midfielder sent a snapshot comfortably wide of the upright.

Antony Kay had the first chance of the second half when he stormed forwards from the back and smashed an effort over the bar.

In a bid to make the pressure pay, Flitcroft introduced tricky winger Zeli Ismail in place of Hallam Hope.

But it was the visitors who should have taken the lead in the 64th minute when Dion Kelly-Evans found space down the right side, but he slammed his shot into the side netting.

Moments later Mellis made a brilliant run down the left and picked out Etuhu in the box but the midfielder shot over on the turn.

The Shakers had the hosts pinned back and bombarded the penalty area with crosses from the right, which Tom Pope won the majority but the sheer number of defenders continued to mop up the danger.

Ismail provided the spark down the right and came close when his low cross fizzed across the six yard box and narrowly evaded the arriving Pope.

The forward created himself a yard of space five minutes from time but struck his shot straight down the throat of Charles-Cook.

Pope almost won it with a looping header late in stoppage time, but the goalkeeper once again kept the striker at bay and denied the Shakers all three points.