HUDDERSFIELD'S welcome upturn in fortunes was being reflected at the gate with crowds at their highest level for years.
During the club's first five home games, 6,499 people had clicked through the turnstiles, which was almost as many as watched the Fartowners' entire home programme three seasons before.
Crowds sank to an all-time low in 1986-87 when a total of 7,336 fans watched 14 homes games - an average of 524.
The average rose to 601 in 1987-88 and following the takeover in November 1988, it went up again to 827.
With attendances now all topping 1,000, Huddersfield looked certain to average four figures for the first time for eight years and were hoping to beat their 1,769 mark achieved during Maurice Bamford's reign in 1980-81, when the team finished just outside the promotion frame.
Although the weather had been kind, the home games had been some of the least attractive with Fulham, Workington, Trafford Borough and Whitehaven bringing negligible support with them, but it was fair to say that Huddersfield's hard core has risen from less than 400 to more than 1,000.
Also, two of the matches had coincided with Halifax being at home and the visit of Whitehaven clashed with the Yorkshire Cup semi-final replay between Halifax and Bradford Northern.
The Fartowners were expected to hold on to the present crowd level and were hoping for some bumper gates when Halifax and Oldham visited after Christmas.
Because of a quirk in the fixture list, Huddersfield had only two home games left before the holiday period as they made up for only a few away matches in the opening two months of the season.
In fact, they were one of only four teams throughout the league with an unbeaten away record, but they had to travel to Whitehaven and Runcorn in upcoming weeks.
Having played more matches than most, Huddersfield's lofty position in the Second Division was due to come under pressure.
