E-GALLERY

Famous Doncastrians Photo's

Mick was born 19 Sep 1947 in Armthorpe and attended Danum Grammar School. His playing career consisted of the following:

Leeds United 01 Sep 1964 01 Jun 1976 187apps 9goals £25000
Walsall 01 Jun 1976 01 Jun 1978 85apps 4goals £20000
Bradford City 01 Jun 1978 01 Jun 1980 56apps 1goal £0
Doncaster Rovers 01 Jun 1980 01 Jun 1981 36apps 1goal

Bio from the Leedsfans.org.uk site:

"Known as the super-sub from Don Revie's team, Mick Bates was an excellent midfielder who could have commanded a regular place in just about any other team of the time, but he stayed at Leeds for 12 years. He didn't score many goals but one of the nine that he did get was hugely important for the club. Having just come off the bench in Turin, he scored a vital goal in the first leg of the InterCity Fairs Cup Final. Leeds drew that game 2-2 and went on to take the trophy on away goals.

In the 1973-74 championship season, he missed out on much of the run-in after tearing his cartilage on an icy pitch at QPR. He finally recovered and was back in the side halfway through the 1974-75 season, but damaged the same knee in a pre-match warm-up. He played on through that game, but the damage had been done and he was out for the rest of the season. The calamity kid was poised for a comeback in a pre-season game that summer, but his knee went again and he had a final op which revealed his carilage had been split across the middle, so it was back to the physio to recover, and he didn't return to the first team until March 1976, two years after the original injury.

That was to be his final season at Leeds, and on his departure he moved around several lower division clubs before retiring from the game in 1981."

More Doncastrian Footballers»

We're looking for new features, articles, and news stories written by budding Doncastrians - send to us here.