Hillsborough Verdict

Totally agree, adding in the 'English Way' of arriving late to the game, after drinking as much as possible (most of us acted like this in those days, if I'm honest) it was a disaster waiting to happen.
Of course the later cover up was outrageous and disgusting, but let's not gloss over history and paint all football fans of that era as innocent choirboys....we weren't.
Sadly 96 lost their lives needlessly.

 

But it doe's mean,they lied about it afterwards and tried to blame it all on the fans.That alone is despicable,and those responsible deserve to be brought to justice!

 

The dirty Babylon will get away with it as usual!

 

Yes, of course, but it's a quite different point.

 

It's just a case of a tragic accident, yes police to blame but not all entirely, lateness of fans & the metal fencing up also didn't help.

 

How many times did we all arrive at the last minute back in the 70s and bundled into the back of the Loft when it was a terrace and been packed like sardines in massive crowds? I was in the 31,000+ for the Leeds game in 76, when Dave Thomas scored the surge lifted me off my feet and we just went in whatever direction the surge took us, one slip, one trip and you wouldn't stand a chance but we didn't care, we were there and that was all that mattered. So many times you would just get carried without being able to do anything about, it makes me shudder to think what could easily have happened and that went for so many top grounds which were all terraced at that time. Don't blame the fans, they were doing what fans do...

 

I see The Sun doesn't carry anything about Hillsborough on their front page. Surprise, surprise as Cilla used to say.

 

And neither does the Times. They have an owner in common.

 

Nice editorial by the Sun.

I was nearly involved in a crush similar to that in 1983. I went to see the All Ireland football final between Dublin and Galway in Croke Park. It was the last all Ireland final that wasn't all ticket. In those days, only the two main stands (Hogan and Cusack stands) were ticketed. The two terraces at each end of the ground were offered on a first come first served basis, even on the day of the final. I remember going down there about 11am for a 15.30 kick off and upon arrival, the gates to Hill 16 had been smashed down by the thousands of Dublin supporters waiting outside. We literally walked in through the broken gates and tried to walk up the bank to the hill 16 terrace. It was a crush just to get on the terrace. Once on the terrace, the crowd were swaying all over the place and people who had fainted were getting passed back over peoples heads. In those days, the ground held 70,000 and I swear there was 90,000 minimum in the ground that day. The crush was so bad, we left hill 16 and climbed over the barbed wire fencing into the Cusack Stand. We watched the match sitting on the concrete stands between the rows. It was freightening that day and how nobody was killed is beyond me. That was 6 years before Hillsborough. As a result of what happened that day, the GAA made all future finals complete ticket only events.

 

65p for the mirror
Gotta be joking

 

Just watched the link that QPR999 posted up. An excellent piece succinctly describing the journey to this weeks final verdict.

 

If you're talking about the last game of the season against Leeds in 76 when we so nearly won the league, I was there too, in the middle of the loft and the crowd was actually 35k.
The surge in the loft in those days was frightening.

 

35,353 - our record attendance. I was obsessed with attendances as a kid.

 

96 innocent lives lost - I'm delighted for their relatives that, through their love and determination, they have finally uncovered the truth. Duckenfield made a catastrophic mistake when he opened that exit gate. There were other mistakes, starting with the decision not to delay the start of the match when so many Liverpool fans had been delayed on the roads, failures to get ambulances in quickly, poor safety equipment provided by Sheffield Wednesday etc

The police cover-up afterwards was disgraceful. I hope there are prosecutions.

As to the fans coming late, I'm sure there was massive pushing to get into that central terrace. The game was underway and the intention by fans was to get in and get a place without thought for anyone else. Of course, they could not see the big picture. Only the police had that oversight.

Nevertheless, I hope, as Liverpool FC celebrates what a wonderful family club they have, they spare a thought for the relatives of the 39 Italians killed at Heysel in 1995 as a result of violence by a large number of Liverpool fans

 

Those in charge that day made a catastrophic error of judgement on the day, it was human error, but you would have hoped that those in charge had the necessary skills set to be able to recognise the difference between traditional football goings on and a disaster of this magnitude......clearly they didn't.

The subsequent cover up and lies are the greatest scandal and for that those in charge have to be held accountable and we can only hope that CPS have sufficient evidence to pursue a conviction.......

Can only agree with Goldies final paragraph above.....

 

sadly I believe you are correct in this, have a look at attendances at this time, they were way down due to hooliganism. What happened at Hillsborough was tragic, innocent people went to a football game and didn't return home, but there was more reasons it happened than just police incompetence

 

As bad as the errors were on the day, the decision to given Liverpool that end and Forest a larger, sparser end was crazy and you don't need hindsight to see that. I read that with the number of turnstiles available in the Leppings Lane lower, the crowd that was in there would have to have gone through one person every 2.5 seconds even if they all arrived at 2pm in order to all be in for 3pm.