 In July 2002, he sparked controversy when deciding that the club's assistant manager had to be registered as a player, meaning that David Preece had to leave the club as he was retiring as a player, though Bateson admitted that the club could not afford to keep Preece on their payroll anyway.This sparked the resignation of manager Roy McFarland soon afterwards.Promotion from the league's basement division was at long last achieved in 2004, but relegation took place after just one season and the following year they narrowly avoided a second successive relegation.