We love Adam Lallana, or so it seems. The way people speak about him you would think he is the worst persón in the world!!!
This article has really got under my skin, mainly for two reasons. It has remided me of a disaster that was one of the most shocking things I have ever seen and how disgusting some people can be. In their defense most will be too young to even know about how horrific this incident was but it is a flimsy defense I admit. The Hillsborough disaster has understandably got a lot of coverage over the years but Valley Parade seems to be largely forgotten by the media. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51627113 To anyone who is maybe too young to know or not familiar with this awful event, this is a picture of the stand with the fire at it's height. please log in to view this image I've also included this video of how quickly the fire spread but beware it has some deeply upsetting scenes
I've been reading a book recently, covering first hand accounts at football tragedies. Such a difficult read. I thought I knew what happened, but until you hear their accounts, you really don't. Harrowing. And as for the police at Hillsborough, disgusting.
I'm on a train back from Waterloo. I remember that as a child, maybe about 10yo. I never realised or remembered just how horrific that became, and so quickly. That actually brought me to tears, not often that happens. That poor guy towards the end, just walking totally on fire. Poor souls.
It happened before I was born so I just read up on it. 56 people killed and 265 injured. What a horrible way to go. Truly horrific.
I have never seen the whole video, before, just the snippets shown on news bulletins at the time. I am at that age (plus being an old softie) where tears come to my eyes fairly quickly, and they did watching this. Hopefully, if there are still similar stadiums surviving, the H&S laws will prevent this from ever happening again. If memory serves me right, it was a wooden structure, with gaps between the floorboards, through which paper had been dropped and accumulated, owing to inaccessibility, and thought to have been ignited by a cigarette. Correct me if I have it wrong.
You are correct. The rubbish had built up over 30 years. The fire spread rapidly, & people didn't stand a chance. I poke fun at health and safety from time to time, but thank goodness times have changed. Warnings were not heeded back then, even from the fire department, and people died because of that. Very sad.
Yes, the cigarette idea was just a theory because nobody really knew the true cause. But whatever started it the strong winds accelerated the blaze very rapidly and gave people little time to escape. All disasters are terrible but this seems to be worse because you could see it develop as you watch.
They have now pin pointed to where it began. They even had a man come forward saying it was his fag he dropped. He went to step on it, but it went down the large gap. Moments later smoke started coming out, the people were transfixed on the game, and just ignored it. By the time they realised how serious it was, it had raged out of control. The police were amazing, their response to put themselves in jeopardy to help the public in stark contrast to what happens four years later in Sheffield.
I read that that was the final game of the season, and in the close season the stand was due to be replaced and upgraded to make it safer. Apparently the main stand had a wooden roof and there was a cavity below the seats filled with 30 years worth of rubbish. It almost makes it even more of a tragedy (if that were possible), that it was the last game before it was due to be sorted out. People that went down into the concourse to try and escape were trapped as the turnstiles and doors were locked as they usually are during a game. The poor guy seen walking onto the pitch on fire near the end sadly later died of his injuries. Can’t imagine the panic and terror. How do you get that many people out and to safety in such a short period of time. Bradford’s official charity is to this day the burns unit at the university of Bradford. It really is heartbreaking footage.
One of the saddest aspects of the film is seeing the kids in the foreground cheering and laughing at the fire, obviously (hopefully) without a clue that people were dying and suffering horribly at the same time. I bet they still have flashbacks to that day even now. But yes, what heroes those West Yorkshire coppers were, in stark contrast to their South Yorkshire colleagues just a few years later.
Stupid from Alonso. But you can just picture Lampard thinking "oh, so the VAR manages to see that one...".