 Adams progressed through the Youth and Centre of Excellence system at Bury and shot to fame with a debut goal against Darlington as he made his first-team debut in a 1–0 home win in October 2005.After the match, Adams debut performance was praised by Chris Casper saying "I'm made up for young Nicky Adams, as he has really worked hard on his game, he's run himself into the ground for the team, and he took the goal well.