Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Coventry left the Teessiders languishing in 23rd place in the npower Championship table with only Andy Keogh's last-gasp equaliser for Cardiff against Preston sparing them a share of bottom spot.
Bates told the club's official website, www.mfc.co.uk: "People know the situation and people aren't naive. We know what is happening.
"A lot of us were in the team that was in the Premier League and got relegated, so we know exactly what can happen and we know what we need to do to avoid it.
"We have to stick together, we have to fight and we have to start getting results quickly because if we don't, there is a chance we will be down there in the bottom three for the whole season.
"It could turn out to be a real dogfight at the end and we don't want to be part of that."
Source: PA
Source: PA