Huddersfield Town F.C. season 1996-97

Infobox Football club season
club = Huddersfield Town

season = 1996-97
manager = flagicon|ENG Brian Horton
chairman = flagicon|ENG Malcolm Asquith
league = Division One
league result = 20th
cup1 = FA Cup
cup1 result = Third Round
cup2 = Coca-Cola Cup
cup2 result = Third Round
league topscorer =
Andy Payton (17)
season topscorer =
Andy Payton (19)
highest attendance = 17,358 vs Manchester City (18 January 1997)
lowest attendance = 5,094 vs Colchester United (19 September 1996)

Huddersfield Town's 1996-97 campaign was a disappointing season for Town, finishing in 20th place, just 8 points and 2 place above the drop zone. Injuries and illness forced Town to play a record 35 players during the season, then a record, which would actually be broken the following season. Brian Horton's job was seemingly on the line following the disappointing season, although he wouldn't leave the McAlpine Stadium until October 1997.

quad at the start of the season

Review

Town made a promising start beating Charlton Athletic 2-0 in front of the highest home crowd for an opening day game for 24 years. This was followed up by wins over Ipswich Town, Oldham Athletic, Reading & Birmingham City, but then a spell of 9 games without a win including a 6-0 hiding at Swindon Town left manager Brian Horton in the lurch.

Form wasn't helped by the consistent injuries to top players such as Marcus Stewart and Andy Morrison, but Town slowly tried to recover, but their best run of the season came during the Christmas and New Year period when they went 5 games unbeaten, but they then went on a run of 1 win in 10, which propelled them into relegation territory.

By the end of the season, top scorer Andy Payton's goals were starting to dry up, but a win on the penultimate day of the season against already relegated Southend United made certain that Town would play Division 1 football the next season.

quad at the end of the season

Results

= Division One =