Some 44,336 crammed into Stamford Bridge to see Beattie's team lose 0–5, but the attendance is still the largest Barrow have ever played before. Finally a third club record gate was achieved on Good Friday when 11,644 watched a 1–1 draw with Wrexham, their biggest ever crowd for a home league fixture. Beattie then shocked Barrow when, only two weeks before the 1948–49 season was due to begin, he handed in his resignation following a dispute with the club chairman. After the board refused to accept this, the chairman and another director resigned and Beattie carried on, but his team began to slip down the table and attendances fell. Stockport County By the end of March 1949 he at last left the troubled Bluebirds to join Stockport County, also a Third Division North club, whom he transformed from a mid-table side into promotion challengers in late 1951–52. It was then that top-flight Huddersfield Town approached Beattie and asked him to become their manager. Huddersfield Town The Yorkshire club offered Beattie a reported salary of around £2,500 but despite his efforts to save the club from the drop he was simply too late. Huddersfield were relegated to Division Two for the first time in their history but Beattie, then one of the youngest managers in the Football League, and who had now nailed two lucky horseshoes to his office wall, was already planning ahead. During the summer months he was to make three crucial signings. Full-back Ron Staniforth and utility player Tommy Cavanagh followed him across the Pennines from Stockport County, whilst inside forward Jimmy Watson came down from Motherwell to pep up the attack. Under Andy Beattie, Huddersfield Town performed strongly in Division Two; during 1952–53 Town and Sheffield United left the rest behind with United eventually pipping Town for the title by two points as both Yorkshire clubs gained promotion. Along the way Huddersfield had also recorded an 8–2 thrashing of Everton, a 6–0 beating of Barnsley, and 5–0 wins over Lincoln City and Southampton. The entire defence of Jack Wheeler, Ron Staniforth, Laurie Kelly, Bill McGarry, Don McEvoy and Len Quested played in every fixture, as did winger Vic Metcalfe, while 30-goal top scoring centre forward Jimmy Glazzard missed only one match as Town gained an immediate return to the top flight. Back in Division One, Beattie's team then continued the charge despite being wracked by injury, and