Huddersfield Town hope to announce a crowd of over 18,000 against Brentford on Saturday.

That would be a record opening-day attendance since the John Smith’s Stadium opened back in 1994.

And it would be a big kick-off best since 22,787 rolled up at the old Leeds Road ground in 1970 to see Town return to the top flight against Blackpool.

There have been many lean times in the intervening 46 years, with the best attendance at an opening-day home match since then being 15,578 for the visit of Stockport County in 2008.

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That was Town’s Centenary season and they had an army of 16,500 season-ticket holders, some paying just £100 each for the campaign.

Now, David Wagner’s new look side are backed by 15,023 season-card holders who took advantage of the £179 offer from chairman Dean Hoyle.

Some will be absent on holiday, but Brentford are expected to travel with around 1,000 fans and Town have sold a further 1,500 walk-up tickets, so the tickets-issued figure could well be over 18,000 by kick-off.

Supporters are keen to see how many of Wagner’s 12 summer signings will feature in the matchday squad.

Liverpool goalkeeper Danny Ward and Manchester City midfielder Aaron Mooy – both on loan from the Premier League – seem certain to feature, as does record £1.8m signing from 1860 Munich, Christopher Schindler.

Highly-promising signing Jack Payne may well be handed the No10 role, while Elias Kachunga is on alert to lead the attack on loan from FC Ingolstadt as Nahki Wells battles a knee injury to prove his fitness.