RECENT history suggests that Clarets fans are more than entitled to start dreaming about a return to the top flight.

In four of the last five seasons, the side that has led the first division at the halfway stage has gone up, three times as champions.

But, as ever, there is an exception to the rule and if Stan Ternent feels the need to calm all the talk about Clarets storming to promotion he just needs to warn his players not to play like Terriers.

At this stage of the season two years ago Huddersfield Town had an identical record to that of Burnley today.

They had won 14, drawn four and lost five of their first 23 games and, like the Clarets, they led the table on 46 points with some more fancied teams behind them.

Five miserable months later they were not even in the top six, missing out on a play-off spot.

Unlike Clarets boss Ternent, Huddersfield manager Steve Bruce had spent a lot of money to build a squad following his move from Sheffield United the previous summer and the talk was of a return to the top flight after an absence of almost 30 years.

But despite their fabulous start to the season the wheels fell off in spectacular style. They took just seven points from the next ten games as they dropped down the table.

Star striker Marcus Stewart was sold to promotion rivals Ipswich Town and suddenly the goals, and therefore the points, dried up.

The Yorkshire side clung on to a top six spot until the final day of the season when a 3-0 defeat at Fulham ensured they missed out on a treasured play-off place, finishing the season eighth in the table.

Having gathered 46 points by the halfway stage they struggled to collect 28 in the second half, the form of a team that is much closer to the bottom than the top. And what happened the following season, they went back down to the second division.

But while the tale of how the Terriers went from top dogs to also rans is a sobering one for Clarets fans, the record books do offer more hope than fear for what lies ahead.

Huddersfield's collapse is very much the odd one out and Burnley's aim will be to emulate the other four sides who led the first division at this stage in the last five seasons.

Fulham ran away with the title last season, Sunderland did the same in 1998-99 while no one managed to dislodge Bolton two years earlier.

Four seasons ago Bryan Robson's Middlesbrough led after 23 games and although they finally had to surrender top spot to Nottingham Forest they still won automatic promotion in second place.

Clarets fans will be keeping an eye on what happens at Maine Road tonight when third placed Manchester City take on second placed Wolves.

City boss Kevin Keegan has admitted his side needs to win so that they can cover any break by the top two.

"It is a big game for us and I'm sure their manager Dave Jones sees it in exactly the same way," he said. "We have to make sure we are part of the top three or four and that if someone breaks away, we are in a position to cover it."

A win for Wolves would leave them a point behind the Clarets but open up a six point gap between them and City. Two more promotion contenders, Birmingham City and Crystal Palace, clash at St Andrews tonight.

But whatever those results, Burnley's lead at the halfway mark of the season is safe and the fans are just starting to realise how good that feels.