Those in the crowd at London Stadium to watch Huddersfield Town take on West Ham United were privileged indeed – and here’s why.
The crowd of 56,977 was the biggest for a league game involving Town in almost 70 years!
And it was the fifth biggest league attendance ever to watch Huddersfield Town .
There have been bigger crowds, of course, in FA Cup and play-offs, but in the league the attendance at the Hammers' new ground was right up there.
While there have been a handful of matches in the intervening years which have topped 50,000 gates for Town league matches, all away from home, the crowd at West Ham on Monday night was the biggest since 57,714 turned out to watch Manchester United beat Town 4-1 at Old Trafford on September 4, 1948.
Peter Doherty was on target for Town against a United side who went on to finish second in the table to champions Portsmouth.
Town performed a great escape.
With two matches to go they were bottom of the table and looking set for Division Two, but Town beat Wolves and Manchester City in their final two matches and, with a combination of results elsewhere, survived at the expense of Preston and Sheffield United.
The previous season, in November 1947, there was an even bigger crowd at Manchester United, 59,772, to see Town draw 4-4 with goals from Jimmy Glazzard, Doherty (2) and Albert Bateman.
On New Year's Day, 1929, there were 57,143 at Hillsborough to see Town draw 1-1 with Sheffield Wednesday and, in April 1927, a crowd of 60,149 were at Newcastle United, where the home team won 1-0 en route to pipping Town to the title.
