The first winner of the Britannia Carpets Player of the Month for the 1998/99 season, Bates picked up his award before Saturday's match with Woking.

Despite the team having stuttered through their opening 11 league games, Bates has remained impressive and reliable.

He said: "To be fair, I struggled at Stalybridge last season with injuries.

"They never saw the best of me."

Bates, 30, was at Stalybridge for two seasons and Runcorn for five years before that. Now he hopes to end his playing days at The Drill Field.

He added: "I have fitted in well here though. The Vics have always had a side that likes to play football, which appealed to me.

"We went through a bit of a bad spell but we seem to be playing well now. I'm happy with my role."

Playing as a wing-back, Bates has been instrumental in providing much of the ammunition for Vics strike-force, it was a role Phil Wilson filled him in on from an early stage.

"He said to me 'we want you as a wide man to take people on and put plenty of balls into the box'," explained Jamie, "I'm happy with that. I think we have a top six team, if we can perform to our potential and we can steer clear of injuries."

He believes the side's dip in form was a result of squad disruption: "In pre-season we were playing like a team that had been together for years, then Ian (Cooke) and Neil (Illman) were injured and the team had to get used to playing with a different partnership up front."

Regardless of who's been playing up front, Bates remains as efficient as ever.

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