TOWN chairman Ken Davy has issued a personal apology to fans for the club’s poor performances so far this season.

But he has backed boss Andy Ritchie to lead the Galpharm side back up League I.

Town fell to 17th after Friday’s 3-0 loss at Tranmere, their fifth in succession in away league games, a record Davy termed “nothing short of appalling”.

Overall, Town have lost seven out of 13 in the league, which the chairman accepts is “relegation standard”.

In addition, Ritchie’s men have been knocked out of both the Carling Cup and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at the first hurdle, adding to the pressure to get through a tough FA Cup first-round assignment at Accrington Stanley on Saturday week.

As the build-up to Saturday’s crunch home league clash with Port Vale began, Davy said: “I want to issue a personal apology on behalf of the club to all fans of Huddersfield Town and particularly our away supporters.

“To say our results have been poor is an understatement. We have not been particularly great at home, but our away form is nothing short of appalling.

“To concede 12 goals in our last four games and fail to score ourselves is a clear recipe for failure.

“Indeed overall, on average, we are scoring less than one goal a game and conceding two, which is relegation standard rather than the play-off position we need to achieve.

“Performances of this level are simply not good enough for a club like Huddersfield Town with its proud history of almost 100 years.

“Today’s supporters deserve better and we all know our players and team management are capable of a great deal more.

“We look to them to now start to deliver the performances the supporters deserve as we move towards our centenary year so that all can share our pride in Huddersfield Town.”