SHAKERS 1, BRISTOL ROVERS 1: Nicknamed the Pirates, Bristol Rovers would have pulled off an act of banditry worthy of Blackbeard himself if they had sailed out of Gigg Lane with all three points on Saturday.

And for a long period it seemed as though Ian Atkins' men would do just that and hold onto the one goal lead they somewhat fortuitously took into the half-time interval.

Thankfully, for the second week in succession a Bolton-born player came to the rescue with a stunning goal.

Last week Dave Flitcroft's 90th minute pile-driver won Bury a vital three points against fellow-strugglers Cambridge United.

On Saturday it was the turn of fellow midfielder Simon Whaley to do the business.

The versatile 19-year-old cracked home a superb 30-yard screamer to earn Graham Barrow's men a point that was the least they deserved for their sterling efforts.

Whaley's strike arrived in the 77th minute and came just as the doubts were being raised as to whether the Shakers were going to breach the Rovers defence.

Visiting keeper Kevin Miller pulled off some great stops to deny Dwayne Mattis and Chris Porter and his hard work was in sharp contract to his Bury counterpart Glyn Garner who had a relatively easy time of it.

Nevertheless, there was nothing the former Crystal Palace and Birmingham custodian could do to stop Whaley's effort, which was his long-awaited first goal of the campaign.

The Shakers were quick out of the traps and made a good start to the game with Jon Newby particularly dangerous down the right flank.

But although they got behind the Rovers back line on a number of occasions, frustratingly, they failed to carve out any clear-cut openings.

On the one occasion they did, in the 11th minute, Miller pulled off a magnificent one handed save from a Mattis shot that was destined for the top corner.

So it was against the run of play when Bristol took the lead on the half hour with a goal that was a poor one from Bury's point of view.

The defence completely failed to deal with a long-range free-kick from Craig Hinton and the ball broke kindly for Craig Disley whose low effort from 18-yards went through a crowd of players and deceived Garner.

Knocked out of their stride by the setback, the Shakers didn't threaten Miller for the rest of the half and were forced to reshuffle when defender John Fitzgerald failed to appear after the break due to an Achilles problem.

"I felt it about ten minutes before half time and didn't want to worsen it because we have some important games coming up," said the Blackburn Rovers loanee who is keen to extend his stay at Gigg.

"Hopefully I should be okay for the big game at Yeovil next week, it just wasn't worth the risk."

The blow forced Bury to switch to a 4-4-2 formation but failed to hinder their play.

In fact, the second half was pretty much one-way traffic as they noticeably stepped up a gear, but still without getting the breakthrough their play deserved.

The lively Newby had a good call for a penalty turned down after 47 minutes while he was clumsily pushed to the ground by Steve Elliott while chasing a through ball.

But referee Phil Prosser adjudged the infringement to have taken place on the edge of the area after consulting his assistant.

Three minutes later Newby sent Porter through on goal and only the quick thinking of Miller saved the day for the visitors as he raced out of his box to clear from the Bury striker.

Fitzgerald's replacement, fellow Irishman Brian Barry-Murphy, played in both Porter and Mattis but both players failed to trouble Miller while at the other end a rare opening for Rovers saw Junior Agogo fire a weak effort on the turn that Garner easily dealt with.

Once Whaley's stunning strike found the net the Shakers went full steam ahead for the winner but it wasn't to be.

Flitcroft had his eye on a repeat of his heroics seven days earlier with a 20-yard drive in the 89th minute but lightning failed to strike twice and his effort flew well wide.

"I thought we played better than we did when we beat Cambridge last week," said Barrow.

"The players showed great character to fight back against a team which I believe are the division's big under-achievers.

"There are signs that we are getting back to playing the good football that got us up the table in the first half of the season.

"But we really must press home our advantage when we get behind teams.

"Too often we get in good positions but fail to carve out chances for ourselves."