Bates made a premature departure from a charity event arranged by the Professional Footballers' Association in Manchester last weekend, apparently frustrated by the unexpected cost of table water.
United's owner would call himself a man of principle, and Bates is nothing if not demanding. He celebrated his birthday yesterday and had hoped to see the anniversary marked by the sight of Leeds clambering to the top of League One. His optimism went unmet last night but there was no call or desire for an angry exit from Elland Road. United's 3-0 victory over Port Vale was, in the end, a satisfying start to his 76th year.
Dennis Wise would not have wished to disappoint Bates on this of all days, but Leeds' 18th league game was about more than pleasing his employer. Since their defeat at Cheltenham Town 10 days ago, the end of a complex and mildly frustrating month, League One has been straining to here to sound of a bubble bursting in Leeds. The disappointment yesterday was all theirs.
Professional football is a world of knee-jerk reactions, as Wise discovered long before he rolled up at Elland Road, and only in a sport this fickle could Leeds have expected to encounter the wave of quiet pessimism which stalked them through November.
Viewed in isolation, last month came at a considerable cost. Leeds dropped six of the 12 points on offer to them, and cut short their involvement in two cup competitions. But in the context of the entire season, the damage caused was negligible.
United continue to possess a league record which, in terms of quality and consistency, is far in excess of any other club in the division. They are still, at what is now an advanced stage, leading favourites for promotion, if not more. But as happy as Wise will have been to hear and ignore the veiled criticism, it seemed nevertheless important to make a stand and a point last night.
Port Vale were ready-made victims, and a team who represent the type of opposition that Leeds must treat ruthlessly. There was reasoned argument behind United's claim that their defeat Cheltenham had come against the run of play, but the loss at Whaddon Road was a missed opportunity on a grand scale.
Lee Sinnott's squad, as it transpired, were more vulnerable than even Cheltenham, and their demeanour at Elland Road spoke of shell-shocked confidence. Sinnott, Farsley Celtic's former manager, has been in position for little over a month, but the size of the crisis on his hands should already be apparent. The gulf between performances was often marginal last night; United did enough, as is so often their way. What will worry Sinnott is the vivid lack of self-esteem that was evident among his players throughout a flat game.
Vale were crushed by a combination of their own lack of belief and the sight of typically sharp finishing from Leeds. United scored with the most basic of goals in the 18th minute, and concluded their victory with second-half strikes from Jermaine Beckford and Tore Andre Flo, who came off the bench to produce the most impressive finish of the evening.
It was questionable whether United were three goals better than Vale over the course of 90 minutes, but the argument was meaningless by the time Flo completed the scoring with seven minutes remaining. Sinnott did not bother to raise it. He knew his side had competed, and he knew his side had fought with commendable persistence. But he could not have denied that Vale carried a beaten air from referee Eddie Ilderton's first whistle.
United's display was, perhaps, a performance of efficiency. On a night when they might have run riot, Wise's players instead met the minimum requirements of a meeting with their division's bottom club. Their performance was flat in parts and occasionally scrappy, but their finishing was beyond criticism. It was, however, precisely that factor which prevented Vale from making a serious contest of last night's game.
For a side who have struggled to fashion goals this season, Sinnott's team were given more opportunities than Wise would have liked.
Luke Rodgers, Vale's captain for the evening, drove their best chance wide of an open goal in 26th minute, and he and David McGoldrick - his partner in attack - were crippled by a chronic shortage of confidence.
McGoldrick's feeble chip on 31 minutes when face-to-face with Casper Ankergren suitably defined Vale - both the club's evening and their season - and a more clinical attitude might have seen the visitors enjoy a productive evening. Rodgers' inexplicable miss with United a goal to the good was particularly costly.
But Vale were fortunate, in any case, to be trailing by such a narrow margin. Prutton's opening goal - from a far post header after makeshift left-back Andrew Hughes had torn through the right-hand side of Sinnott's defence - was quickly followed by two efforts from Beckford, both of which sailed past goalkeeper Joe Anyon and crashed against the post.
Beckford suffered a infuriating afternoon at Cheltenham, where a combination of the crossbar, an offside flag and wasteful finishing denied him a goal, and the intervention of the woodwork last night will have left him wondering whether another fruitless evening was in store. But it took just five minutes of the second half for the striker to rediscover his sublime touch.
Rui Marques broke from defence and played a low pass to Beckford's feet inside Vale's box. The striker slipped free of his marker with a quick turn and, despite losing his footing, swept a right-footed shot across Anyon and into the far corner of the net.
Rodgers' fierce volley brought a tense parry from Ankergren two minutes later, but that was just about that. Vale began to take a hold on possession and probed for gaps in United's defence but, for the first time in five minutes, Wise's backline was impermeable. A wild strike from Rodgers which sliced yards wide from close range provided a fitting end to their toil. It was eventually left to Flo to provide the one moment of sparkle with a delightful strike on 83 minutes.
The forward had been introduced as a substitute in the 67th minute after Beckford took a kick to his shin, and both Flo and Leeds had struggled to touch the ball during a period in which Vale dictated the pace and flow of the game.
But a throw-in from Hughes - a player whose performance eclipsed all others - was met by a header from Tresor Kandol on the edge of the area, and Flo was left unmarked to loop a sharp volley over Anyon from 18 yards. It was more punishment than Vale deserved, but perhaps no more than their fans had expected.
It may be, as Dave Bassett remarked on Monday, that Sinnott will be forced to take Vale down before his revolution begins in earnest. The prospect is hard to swallow, yet he did not have to look far last night for evidence of the effect that can have relegation. It has, in its own way, worked for Leeds.