Today's post is rather lacking in teh funnay, and for good reason. Normal service resumed tomorrow.
Oh, I remember where I was at 3.06pm on Saturday 15th April 1989.I was at the Arsenal, standing about a third of the way up the old North Bank, just to the right of the goal.
I had a couple of pints in the Tavern, sold a few copies of The Gooner fanzine, paid the ridiculously small entrance fee at the turnstile, bought a programme and settled down in a group of half-a-dozen regulars to watch the boys take on Newcastle United.
Arsenal were coughing and spluttering their way to their first title in 18 years, Newcastle - as usual - were fighting relegation.
We won 1-0, second-half goal from magic winger Brian Marwood, having the season of his life.
But, by then, it hardly mattered at all.
By then, we were hearing news of something dreadful happening in Yorkshire.
Liverpool were playing Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final. The crush of fans arriving late for the game was too much for the Leppings Lane terrace, the police froze, and ninety-six football fans perished in the awful scenes that followed.
We'd all stood, at some time or another, on a dodgy terrace, swaying to and fro with the crowd until jammed behind a barrier. We'd all had one or two near misses, had a few pints after the match to laugh it off.
This time, those Liverpool fans didn't get away. Ninety-six. That's an awful lot of young lives to snuff out in one day.
On the way home from Highbury, already shaken to the core, I was (innocently) involved in a motor accident. It was all I could do to pull over to the side of the road and cry my eyes out. Twenty-three years old, like a baby in a layby just outside Reading.
Twenty years later, Hillsborough is a scar that still runs deep in Merseyside, not least for the botched policing, the unspoken establishment view that "they probably deserved it" and the lies that emerged in The Sun newspaper in subsequent days.
Nobody deserves to die like that, not at a football match, not anywhere. I've seen violent death first-hand, and, frankly, it ain't pretty and I don't plan on seeing it again.
As you can see, Hillsborough still makes me angry, even to this day.
Angry, but proud to be a football fan. We pulled together. We bought a (dreadful) charity single. The minutes' silence at the first post-Hillsborough match (a 5-0 demolition of Albania in the World Cup) was perfect. We remembered, always.
The Ninety-Six: Never Forget.
18 comments:
And they always know you remember them. Always.
Well said.
I remember waiting for the match in South Africa. It was a rare live treat and being a Liverpool fan I was excited. My young eyes could not make sense of what was happening and the images that were being broadcast.
It is one of those I remember where I was when that happened moments
Last week, in the Daily Record, there was an interview with the paramedic from the ONE ambuance that was allowed on the pitch to deal with all of the casualties while the others were held back.
Hopefully - Never again.
The only small consolation to come from that horrible disaster is that hopefully, 'those in charge' are now more aware of how things can go seriously wrong and how to help prevent such a tradegy from happening again.
Hopefully.
The trouble is, these things always do happen again. I remember hearing about it on the radio while on holiday. It got so awful we turned it off in the end.
Good on yer, SD.
Sure, fully seated grounds means it costs more*, but if that cost is in place of lives lost, then it's worth it.
* Of course, money-grabbing Murdoch & the insane incomes of premiership fooballers may also have had some effect on the ticket prices too...
Well said, sir.
*bows head for Hillsborough and Valley Parade*
Tragedy in the midst of what should be fun is devistating. Even when the triggering incident isn't a fun thing, the loss of lives to no purpose is always horrible.
The anniversary dates often bring back that same gut-wrenching feeling. Having the telly replay the "highlights" over and over annually does not help. Yes, I still cry when I see the airplanes fly into the towers. I'm sure your feelings on the Hillsborough incident are similar, and I sympathize.
I feel the same way every time I hear "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Audrey's back ... where have you been???
I remember it well. I was standing on that same terrace as you Scary. The sense of shock and horror that went through the crowd when they updated us over the PA at halftime was something I'll never forget.
I hugged a lot of people that day.
Thanks for remembering.
Nice post, Duckface. A local Liverpudlian I know has "remembering the 96 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough 20 years ago today. They'll never walk alone," as her Facebook status line today. They are, indeed, remembered the world over.
I too was at Highbury that day and remember feeling "what's the point of this?"
A feeling that grew stronger with each passing year until I gave my season ticket up.
I despise the atmosphere at The Emirates now, but I willingly put up with it. We have stopped killing our citizens in football grounds.
I'm sure that many of us think every 15th April "there but for the grace of god..." I know I do.
Justice for the 96.
Worth remembering that most of these 96 were already in the ground and not amongst the several hundred who had arrived late, (having been severely delayed through no fault of their own), that the Police were well aware of these late arrivals, and that for some strange reason the game had been allowed to start without them.
Worth also remembering the stampede of the late arrivals, which was so aggressive that the few crowd control Police horses were unable to respond for fear of causing death by trampling, let alone being knocked over themselves.
And everyone who was within that crowd of late arrivals who pushed those in front of them forward into the ground should also share the guilt. It was they who also made a contribution towards the deaths of 96 victims, in an incident that should never have happened in the first place.
There are so many things I'd like to say about that day. But I know better than to say them. So I usually just join in piling all the blame on the Evil Orwellian Thatcherite Scuffer Pig Scum.
It's easiest and safest, and it doesn't offend anyone who can do much about it.
Old enough to remember Ibrox, Valley Parade, Heysel and goodness knows how many around the world. Takes a long time to learn.
Nice one your Duckness.
It amazes me to see the Sun on sale in Liverpool at all. If I was a shopkeeper I wouldn't let that filth through the door even now.
It would seem that no-one ever has, or ever will, learn from these tragedies. Just take a read of this:
http://www.crowddynamics.com/Disasters/Stadium%20Disasters.htm I could have researched further but just reading this list sickened me enough. Why are there so many British grounds on that list? Why are the British so bad at large event crowd control? (And that's even before mentioning the recent G20 demonstrations!).
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