Hillsborough disaster

[pushpinpussy]

15 April 1989. 32 years today. How time flies.

[ClaretTony]

Sad day back in 1989. No matter who you are, no matter which team you support, you shouldn't be going to a match and not coming home.

I read this week that the Hillsborough Support Group is now closing down after all these years, there is nothing else for them to do but they will still be at home thinking about their individual loved ones who left them 32 years ago.

My thoughts with all of them today.

[Claretitus]

Wow! Remember this like it was yesterday, staring open mouthed at the TV set on Saturday afternoon, several houses, and less grey hairs ago. RIP the 96.

[ClaretMov]

Every time I'm in Liverpool for work, football etc I visit the eternal flame memorial, I read all the names and look at the ages of all the fan's that died and I always have a

[Andingle]

I would imagine most people can remember where they were that day.
I was playing football and we watched all the aftermath unfold on the TV after the game, horrible scenes.

[ClaretTony]

I would imagine most people can remember where they were that day.
I was playing football and we watched all the aftermath unfold on the TV after the game, horrible scenes.

I was at the Turf
Burnley 0 Darlington 1

[ClaretTony]

Every time I'm in Liverpool for work, football etc I visit the eternal flame memorial, I read all the names and look at the ages of all the fan's that died and I always have a

Every time I go to Anfield I always go to the memorial to pay my respects

[Leisure]

I was at the Turf
Burnley 0 Darlington 1

Snap. Was stood on the Beehole when the news came through.

[cl40]

I was a young lad sat in the cricket field stand (family stand at the time) some guy next to us had a portable hand held tv, we could see it all unfolding on that.

RIP 96

[LS7]

I was in the away end at Ewood as Man City lost 4-0 in a surprise defeat on the way to promotion.

[Vintage Claret]

Horrendous to watch the events unfold that day

Like the Bradford fire or Heysall stadium or other disasters you can never imagine your loved ones simply going to a football match but never returning.

RIP the 96 et al

[trawdenclaret]

I was at Villa park watching Everton v Norwich and Micky Phelan .
The Everton fans were very upset as the news came through, a very sad day.

[Tribesmen]

I think i have said this before but i only found out about this and the Bradford fire 3 weeks later , i was somewhere in China and things were quite different then what they are today with information access.
In 1989 in China there were problems .

[PaintYorkClaretnBlue]

I was at the Turf
Burnley 0 Darlington 1

Me too, although I couldn’t have told you who we were playing or the score!

[elwaclaret]

Remember the news filtering through to our group as we watched the clarets and at first we didn’t think much of it... you got fights everywhere back then, but then it became understood that this one was a bit different... youngsters today have know idea how news used to trickle around the stands and even ends in the old days... often fiftieth or hundred and fiftieth hand news.

RIP 96

[Herts Clarets]

I was on the Turf. Trouble with the Darlington fans at the start of our game. There were a few that showed themselves on the Longside with the inevitable outcome. All stopped once the news of what was happening in Sheffield filtered through on people's radios.

DFC_BFC (5).jpg (155.44 KiB) Viewed 3232 times

[ClaretTony]

Even outside at the end of our game we were being told there had been one fatality at Hillsborough such was communication back then.

[Dark Cloud]

I remember going into The Wellington after the game at The Turf and watching the stuff unfolding on the tele. It really was surreal.

[NottsClaret]

I was in the away end at Ewood as Man City lost 4-0 in a surprise defeat on the way to promotion.

Yes, was very unusual with us and Blackburn both at home for a league match. I remember the guy on Radio Lancs when we got back to the car describing a ‘black day for football’. For a moment we thought it was an over reaction to the trouble on the Longside. As Tony says, news filtered through more slowly then.

Terrible day, thoughts with all the families.

[claret_in_exile]

I was at the Turf
Burnley 0 Darlington 1

I remember that game very well. I was 10 and had written to the club about how much of a fan I was and they signed us all up for a four week training course PLUS free tickets for that game. Darlington were bottom of the league and hadn't won away at all that year. It was sickening losing to them in front of all of my school friends - who were Bradford and Leeds fans!

But then we saw the TV after the game and things were really put in perspective.

[Targetman]

We were also on the Bee Hole and word was going round that a turnstile at Hillsborough had collapsed and that someone had been killed.

As mentioned above communication wasn't the best at that time. We all wondered how a turnstile collapsing could possibly kill someone.
When I got home after our game my wife met me at the door saying...."you need to watch the tv"....

Only then did I realise what had actually happened.

[expoultryboy]

Also on the turf . I remember a few darlo fans running along the bottom of the longside . Word was soon going round that there was trouble at Hillsborough and everyone presumed to begin with , that it was hooliganism . It wasn't until we got home and saw the news did we realise the grim reality . RIP the 96

[Oshkoshclaret]

I remember the Darlington trouble well. It was premeditated, as the Longside filled up there were a couple of dozen strange faces acting suspiciously and they seemed to be wearing a 'uniform' of what I would call a lumberjack shirt. In the photo above, the lad above the T in The Angels advert is wearing one.

I didn't realize this was the day of the Hillsborough disaster. I worked the bar at Chalkers that night, and we all just watched the TV in complete shock.

[haptonclaret]

I was staying at my brother in law's in Westhoughton. On the Saturday morning I left for the Turf and he left for Hillsborough. When I got back after our game we had hours of excruciatingly frustrating waiting. No mobiles in those days and the Liverpool fans were queueing up outside locals' houses to use their landlines just to ring home to let loved ones know they were ok. We got the call from him well into the evening and it must have been 10-11pm when he eventually got home. A sad day I'll never forget.....our match became insignificant.

[Bordeauxclaret]

I can’t remember myself but what was the coverage like after the game on tv?

Was it a case of waiting for the scheduled news programmes for updates?

[Herts Clarets]

Our line up that day...

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[bfcjg]

I remember the trouble, I think they were in a couple of minibuses parked near the Welly, bad mistake, the events unfolding at Hillsborough were horrendous and just got worse as the day went on, the memorial is so sombre and the list of names and ages almost make it like a war memorial such are the numbers.

[Foreverly Claret]

Life is strange.I have 2 reasons for remembering the day very well.

Firstly , the sadness relating to the awful event at Hillsborough.

Secondly , I had spent the night before in the Clarendon Wing of Leeds General Infirmary where my youngest daughter was born at 6 a.m. on the 15th .

I went home knackered and woke up about 3 pm , turned on the TV and the awful events were beginning to unfold but I don't think anyone had an inkling of the true scale of the disaster until a bit later.

I met up with her yesterday afternoon for a pint on her 32nd.birthday but its always a day when I reflect on what happened in Sheffield

[pushpinpussy]

i remember that game very well. i was only a young teenager on the Bee hole End with my friend. Rumour was going around that some Darlington fans were in the Longisde. Next thing you saw and heard were about 6 Darlington fans chant something. before you knew it half the Longside laid into them. the police for some reason escorted them out through the Bee Hole end and a fair few Bee holers also managed to get a dig at them. the Darlington fans walked past me and they looked absolutely terrified. i can still see the look on their faces as of today.

[the_magic_rat]

I'd just parked up at the North Sea Ferries Terminal at Europoort on the way home from a work trip to the continent when the game kicked off and I was listening to the match on 5 Live (or whatever it was back then ) as you could always pick up BBC radio in the Low Countries. By the time I finally boarded my ferry they were reporting 7 confirmed deaths. When I next switched my radio on as I drove down the ramp in Hull the next morning it had risen to 89.

[mill hill claret]

I was there..remember the day well I was only 15 at the time ..think Dyson got the winner for Darlington 1-0 ....was on the train home to blackburn and rumour on the train was that there had been crown trouble at Hillsborough...by the time I got home it was anything but crowd trouble

[harpers_perm]

Apologies for the long post.

My cousin died at Hillsborough, he was 19.  His was the first funeral and I attended in what was a surreal and distressing day.  I was 17 and remember turning up at my cousins house which was surrounded by thousands of people stood in complete silence.  I walked into the house and Pink Floyd was playing as that was his favourite band.  I sat in the front room and remember John Barnes, John Aldridge and Gary Ablett being sat there.  They were really supportive, indeed John Barnes offered me a lift to the church. 

The church was surrounded by TV cameras and again thousands of people.  Walking into the church we passed Kenny Dalglish who didn’t go in but stood at the entrance, who seemed like he didn’t know where to look and looked totally broken and ashen.  John Aldridge read the sermon, rather bravely as he barely got through it. 

At the burial I recall seeing flowers and 3 wreaths from Man United, Everton and Forest. 

My cousin initially didn’t have a ticket but got one the day before and attended in a minibus with his friends. I didn’t know him well, only from family gatherings but he was police, a hard worker, apparently a lovely lad and an avid football fan.  I remember the newspaper the next day showing the fence at the front of the Leppings Lane End, thankfully that image isn’t available online but my cousin was shown, eyes closed, a terrible tragic image that makes your hair stand on end, you can imagine his parents reaction. 

The death destroyed that side of the family I suppose.   They were totally broken from that day onwards.  My dad went to Sheffield and identified the body in the gymnasium, I’m not sure but on the way down I don’t think it was actually clear he had passed away.   The sad aspect for me is that I rarely engage with my Liverpool family.  My dad was a detective in Rawtenstall and later Preston and because of his job in the Police they continually insisted he was part of a cover up and effectively disowned him which was utterly ludicrous considering he was a Lancashire officer.  My dad died aged 53 in 2000 and always laughed it off but it was a shame. 

Finally, many people criticise Liverpool fans for not allowing Hillsborough to go away.  It took loved ones 25 years to get an accurate coroners report explaining exactly how their loved ones died, many had their loved ones paraded in a newspaper taking their last breaths and then the media suggesting the looting of the dead and urinating on emergency service workers.  I think I’d be the same. 

[Herts Clarets]

Apologies for the long post.

My cousin died at Hillsborough, he was 19.  His was the first funeral and I attended in what was a surreal and distressing day.  I was 17 and remember turning up at my cousins house which was surrounded by thousands of people stood in complete silence.  I walked into the house and Pink Floyd was playing as that was his favourite band.  I sat in the front room and remember John Barnes, John Aldridge and Gary Ablett being sat there.  They were really supportive, indeed John Barnes offered me a lift to the church. 

The church was surrounded by TV cameras and again thousands of people.  Walking into the church we passed Kenny Dalglish who didn’t go in but stood at the entrance, who seemed like he didn’t know where to look and looked totally broken and ashen.  John Aldridge read the sermon, rather bravely as he barely got through it. 

At the burial I recall seeing flowers and 3 wreaths from Man United, Everton and Forest. 

My cousin initially didn’t have a ticket but got one the day before and attended in a minibus with his friends. I didn’t know him well, only from family gatherings but he was police, a hard worker, apparently a lovely lad and an avid football fan.  I remember the newspaper the next day showing the fence at the front of the Leppings Lane End, thankfully that image isn’t available online but my cousin was shown, eyes closed, a terrible tragic image that makes your hair stand on end, you can imagine his parents reaction. 

The death destroyed that side of the family I suppose.   They were totally broken from that day onwards.  My dad went to Sheffield and identified the body in the gymnasium, I’m not sure but on the way down I don’t think it was actually clear he had passed away.   The sad aspect for me is that I rarely engage with my Liverpool family.  My dad was a detective in Rawtenstall and later Preston and because of his job in the Police they continually insisted he was part of a cover up and effectively disowned him which was utterly ludicrous considering he was a Lancashire officer.  My dad died aged 53 in 2000 and always laughed it off but it was a shame. 

Finally, many people criticise Liverpool fans for not allowing Hillsborough to go away.  It took loved ones 25 years to get an accurate coroners report explaining exactly how their loved ones died, many had their loved ones paraded in a newspaper taking their last breaths and then the media suggesting the looting of the dead and urinating on emergency service workers.  I think I’d be the same. 

No apologies necessary. Really brings home the reality of what happened that day and the personal tragedies that affected the families involved, directly and indirectly.

[Hipper]

Horrendous to watch the events unfold that day

Like the Bradford fire or Heysall stadium or other disasters you can never imagine your loved ones simply going to a football match but never returning.

RIP the 96 et al

That's not actually true. Have you forgotten what watching football in the 70s and 80s was like?

It was potentially dangerous with hooligans particularly (throwing darts, giving people a good kicking, bricking coaches etc.). You had to give these things due consideration when going to a match - wearing scarves, route taken etc.. Sub standard stadia and being treated by the police as potential criminals were also factors though. It all came to a head at Hillsborough and Valley Parade but it could have been at other places.

We still went to games because we were young and mostly thought we were invincible.

[Holmeclaret]

i remember that game very well. i was only a young teenager on the Bee hole End with my friend. Rumour was going around that some Darlington fans were in the Longisde. Next thing you saw and heard were about 6 Darlington fans chant something. before you knew it half the Longside laid into them. the police for some reason escorted them out through the Bee Hole end and a fair few Bee holers also managed to get a dig at them. the Darlington fans walked past me and they looked absolutely terrified. i can still see the look on their faces as of today.

I was by the Bee Hole fencing that afternoon when the police decided to take them out through the Bee Hole End. You’re right it was an incredibly daft decision.

I was walking up Tod Road when I heard some lads talking about the ‘trouble’ at Hillsborough. Like many on here it was not until I got home that the terrible truth of what happened became clear.

[Bin Ont Turf]

In the thick of it on the Longside, Darlo had some right nutters back then.

Got a crack on the head from one of the two big jobbies who were at the Bee Hole fence.

Like Tony says, didn't know anything really about what had happened at Sheffield (some trouble we were told) until after our match.