The hosts raced into a third-minute lead when full-back Luke Ayling smashed home a superb volley from Jack Harrison's deep cross.

Patrick Bamford wrapped up the win with a close-range finish after Town goalkeeper Jonas Lossl could only tip Ben White's header into his path.

The Whites, who have now won their past five games without conceding, hit the woodwork through Harrison as they made the most of West Bromwich Albion's 0-0 draw at Swansea to go back to the top of the table for the first time since 14 December.

Added to Fulham's draw at Bristol City and Nottingham Forest's home defeat by Millwall, Leeds were the only one of the Championship's top four to win this weekend.

Ayling opened the scoring in the first five minutes in last week's 4-0 win at Hull City and repeated the trick at Elland Road with a wonderful flying volley from Harrison's lofted centre.

Town, who had won their past two games to climb away from the bottom three, offered little but came close to a leveller when Trevoh Chalobah's shot threatened to squirm past Leeds keeper Illan Meslier.

Bamford ended his eight-match run without a goal to put the game beyond Town in the 51st minute and thereafter it was just a matter of whether Leeds could add to the score.

Marcelo Bielsa's men visit Cardiff a week on Sunday, while the Terriers, who are now just three points clear of the bottom three, host Wigan.

Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa told BBC Radio Leeds:

"We defended well, we didn't receive real chances, just the one in the first half.

"In attack, we could have scored maybe one more goal.

"I am happy for (Patrick Bamford), centre-forwards need to score.

"Today he scored a typical goal for a centre-forward."

Huddersfield Town manager Danny Cowley told BBC Radio Leeds:

"We are disappointed. When you go into a game as an underdog, then you probably can't concede the quality of goal that we did in the first couple of minutes.

"I thought the response was good and for the first half an hour, we felt that we had a good place in the game.

"We had some good chances in that period.

"After that, we didn't keep the ball as well as we would have liked."