You are right. I've just been looking at a website for attendance geeks and we were regularly number 3/4 whilst in old Div 1 and still in the top 8 when dropped down to old div2 in 82/83. It was only in 87/88 when we dropped to 12th.
1982/83 Chelsea average 12k!
1990/91 Newcastle 16k!
Newcastle fans won't accept that :-)