h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The next weekend there was a European Cup match (I think in Barcelona) which featured two Italian sides. They had a minutes silence and then the whole crowd sang "You'll never walk alone" sotto voce - tell you what, I was crying.

I believe that there has only ever been one pop concert at Anfield, that was a charity concert, the Hillsborough Justice Concert on 10th May 1997.
Also in 1989 Ferry Across the Mersey was recorded by a number of liverpool music stars and was released with the money going to a disaster fund.

Yes that day will never ever be forgotten and if anything came out of that tragedy it is that grounds are now safe. I know all seater stadiums take away some atmosphere but it is a must in this day & age.

Agreed - and the atmosphere has actually become a lot less hostile. The phrase I heard somewhere was "If you put fans in cages, of course they'll behave like animals".

I was sitting a Leeds Station trying to get over to Shefield after the athletics meet I was at overran on my event. I watched the news unfurl and never took the train over. Just headed back to London, once I had some idea of the extent of what was going on.

Seeing the names and the youth.... it really brought it home....

Thanx DD

I thought that people might be interested to know that when it became apparent that the North Bank at Highbury was to be demolished, there was some sort of campaign to name the new stand after the youngest dead, however it petered out quickly due to lack of publicity, interest and the fact that everyone preferred to try and save the North Bank - the mass sit-ins after matches and the last after the final match in front of the Bank would have gone on through the night and possibly a week, but after about five hours, as it began to get dark, the police cleared the North Bank.
The next season was probably more famous for the fact that it took half a season to score at the Mural End.

Eleven years on, and the memories of that day - the disbelief, the shared grief have yet to fade away. I was at Highbury that day for a league match against Newcastle - never have I felt so disinclined to celebrate a winning goal as I did that day.

Let us not forget that the death toll now stands at ninety-six - a further victim sadly passed away after many years in a coma.

I live in hope that the authorities will one day admit their culpability in the whole affair, ad that the families of the deceased will have the justice they deserve.

Does anyone remember the cover of When Saturday Comes?


GRAHAM KELLY: It wasn't our fault

SENIOR POLICEMAN: It wasn't our fault

MAGGIE THATCHER: It wasn't our fault

FANS ON A TERRACE: Oh well, it must be our fault again.

It's really sad, but really true. The fans always get the blame. I was only 9 at the time but I can still remember the news pictures so clearly - people lying all over the pitch, St. John's Ambulance people and paramedics scattered around, police trying to sort everything out, fans staggering round in deep shock. The thing that sticks in my memory most though is that when the push really started all of the Notts Forrest fans at the other end of the stadium started cheering, because they had no idea what was going on. I just thought how sad that was.

I do not agree that the atmosphere has become less threatening - when you get opposition fans infiltrating the 'home' end it feels very dangerous at times because you can not just go and sit somewhere else! This situation arises quite a lot a Highbury when you get many supporters of other London clubs and the Mancs in the North Bank often in quite large numbers. Quite how they get the tickets is a mystery to me but then I think that the touts have a lot to answer for!

That's the first time I've seen all the names of those who died listed. And their ages, too. It is very numbing.

I can still see the pictures, too. I then remember listening to the radio later in the afternoon and hearing that so many people had passed away.

I was a Liverpool fan at the time, and remained so until my late teens, when I became a regular follower of my local team, Mansfield Town.

2 or 3 seasons ago we had a situation where we played one of our biggest rivals, Notts County, at Field Mill. Nobody had a clue which end to go in, people were being directed all around the ground by Police Officers and Stewards alike.

I remember showing my season ticket to both a steward and a police officer and demanding to know which end to go in... both just shrugged and suggested asking the other.

County fans had supposedly been given the Stags West Stand South Terrace, the end which I'm supposed to go in as a season ticket holder. But in the queue could be heard both Stags and County songs being sung, and it was a shambles.

In the end I barged my way past an unhelpful police officer and steward and jumped the turnstile, which they said they were closing.

Other fans charged down a gate to get in. Inside the ground, which at the time was limited to around 5,800 capacity, were over 6000 fans. Which wouldn't be too much of a problem but there were far too many in the seating area and people couldn't move up there.

I was in the terracing, and found myself surrounded by an odd mix of County and stags fans, and the atmosphere stank of trouble brewing.

County scored after about 14 minutes and there was fighting right behind me. I moved forward out of the way, and the police seemed to deal with it, throwing the County fans out of the ground. I wondered whether to leave at half time, I could see a massacre coming on.

Fortunately it never happened, but the organization was a disgrace in a limited capacity stadium. If we'd played Chesterfield or Cardiff then it would have definetely been very bloody. In fact, I remember one Stags fan coming up to me during the first half and saying to me, "If you're a County fan you're going out on a stretcher".

I showed him my stags season ticket. But it makes you ashamed of your club and some of your so-called 'fellow fans'.

I hope that there'll never be anything as sad and tragic as Hillsborough ever again. But until we're all on all-seater stadia, the danger is still there.

and even then, look at Rotherham last year - the police charging down that narrow little alley at the side of the ground, on horseback, and trampling a fan to death.

We're still treated as hooligans to this day. Or animals.

Anyway, I'm winding myself up about the whole thing now.

God bless those who have died.

We hope that we only have football to talk about in the future.

Not much you can add to the above. There cannot have been a football fan in the land who was not touched by what happened that day in April 1989. Their memory lives on in the hearts and minds of every football fan in every country across the world. They shall not be forgotten.

Right - they will never be forgotten! The worst part of all is that those b****** police officers have got off! I feel so sorry for the families of the victims, dead and living, who now have so much more information about what actually happened from the trial and still no justice! Survivors who saw members of their families dying in the pens next to them and have since lost the rest of their families through divorce and other events will never recover and those police officers bleating on about how they have suffered too! Disgraceful!

the Nitpicker

I remember going to the Justice concert with my brother.... As the concert started, the heavens opened and itpoured with rain. Lightning lit up the sky, and thunder drummed along with the music... But underneath it all, the crowd partied... The bands were excellent, and I think that almost every person inside Anfield that day shed a tear...
Going back to the weather, though... Trevor Hicks said it all on the cd of the concert, "It was almost as if the 96 were having there own party in the sky"
Justice

.. but you would be surprised. I now live in the Greater Manchester area, near the Peak District, but a few weeks ago I was in a pub with my partner & I heard some Mancs having a go at the Scousers cos they weren't allowed to stand up anymore in their stadium. I couldn't believe after all these years that these ******** still exist in the world, I swear to God, they make all the manc prejudices true!

Justice for the 96!

I go to watch St.Mirren ok we don't normally get big crowds unless we play the Old Firm,but you get some idiots with very short memories who insist on standing during games.When the announcer tells them it is an all seater stadium and that they should take their seats,it is scoffed at.It even got a mention in the Sunday National newspaper that the announcer had asked everyone to sit down,and the ignoramous reporter thought this was really stange.As I say very short memories.

I'm sure no-one visiting this would think anything else, but "somehow a gate was opened" in the article I think needs changed.
The police opened the gate to relieve pressure at the turnstiles caused by inadequate crowd control. Tragically we know that the policing inside the ground was worse than outside and the crush was transferred to the pens behind the goal.
It was nothing to do with drunken, ticketless Liverpool fans turning up late and forcing their way in. That was an admitted lie, to Graham Kelly, who then, in good faith, passed it on in his statement shortly afterwards.

I was at Old Trafford for the next game against Liverpool and the whole Stretford End (including myself) sang You'll Never Walk Alone. Probably the only time that's happened in my lifetime.

20 years have passed and I still remember it vividly. You don't go to a match not expecting to come home. So many young people.