The club recruited extensively from British football and among his teammates were fellow Scots Johnny Ballantyne and Alex McNab, while former Rangers player Tommy Muirhead was appointed player-manager.
[7] Despite his youth and the talent of his teammates, Battles enjoyed a successful first season with Boston, scoring seven goals in eighteen games, as the Wonder Workers won the 1925 Lewis Cup and the American Professional Soccer Championship.
[8] Battles maintained a consistent level of form over the next three seasons, scoring in double figures in the 1926 and 1928 ASL campaigns and helping the Wonder Workers regain the Lewis Cup in 1927.
[10] By the end of the 1928–29 season he had scored a club record 31 goals in 28 League games as Hearts finished in 4th position and was attracting transfer attention from the pre-eminent English sides of the era, Arsenal and Huddersfield Town.
[10] These overtures were resisted by the club's board, to the delight of the Hearts support, amongst whom Battles had quickly become a favourite, thanks in the main to an extraordinary feat of scoring against local rivals Hibernian.
[10] Battles continued to score freely the following season, although Hearts inconsistent form ensured they finished no higher than 10th in the League, while Rangers overwhelmed them in the Scottish Cup semi-finals.
[10] Having again impressed in an inter-League match against the Irish League earlier in the month (he only scored three times on this occasion), Battles was awarded his first cap against Wales on 25 October 1930.
He scored Scotland's equalising goal in a 1–1 draw at Ibrox[11] but was never to have another opportunity at that level, largely due to the standing of his contemporary and rival for the center-forward berth, Hughie Gallacher.
[2] He returned to Hearts for a final season in 1935–36 but was unable to recapture his pre-injury form or earn consistent selection for the first team, even after McCulloch's mid-season departure to Brentford.