You'll Never Walk Alone

It was set to be just another football match. It was the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool Football Club and Nottingham Forest FC. Liverpool fans arrived in their masses at Sheffield Wednesday's ground Hillsborough Stadium - the Travelling Kop was never going to disappoint their team. But for 96 fans, it wasn't a football match. For 96 fans, it was a death sentence. For every Liverpool supporter, player and most of the footballing world, it was a day that would never be forgotten.

At the time, most football stadiums had high fencing that separated the spectator's seats and the football pitch. This was the time of 'football hooligans', who would often invade the pitch or throw things at the players. Hillsborough Stadium was a regular place for semi-final matches to be held in the 1980s, hosting five in total. A situation such as the one on April 15th 1989 had occurred in 1981 at the semi-final between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers - resulting in 38 fans being injured in the crush. This prompted Sheffield Wednesday to alter the design of their ground and divide it into three separate pens. When the team was promoted to the First Division in 1985, they increased it to five pens.

After another semi-final match - also involving Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest - where fans complained of there not being enough room in the stands at the Leppings Lane end of the stadium, the semi-final of 1989 rolled around. With kick-off scheduled for 3.00pm, the authorities advised fans to get to their seats by 2.45pm. Between 2.30 and 2.40pm, the amount of fans outside the turnstile entrances at the Leppings Lane end built up, with all of them eager to get to their seats and cheer on their team. With an estimate of 5,000 fans trying to get through the turnstiles and increasing security concerns, police decided to open a set of gates (Gate C) which did not have turnstiles. The supporters rushed through the gate to get into the stadium.

The result of this was an influx of thousands of supporters going through the gate into a narrow tunnel and the fans in the already overcrowded central pens caused a huge crush at the front of the terrace. People were being crushed against the high fences by the fans coming through. The people entering the ground didn't know about the problems at the fence - normally police or stewards would have been stood at the entrance of the tunnel to stop people going in when the pens were full, but on that occasion they weren't, for reasons which are still unknown.

The problems at the front went unnoticed for some time, as most people's attention was being held by the match which had already begun. At 3.06pm, the referee stopped the game after being advised to do so by police. Several minutes before that, fans had started climbing over the fence to escape the crush, and a small gate in the fence had been forced open which allowed some supporters to escape. Still more fans were pulled to safety by fellow fans who were in the West Stand, directly above the Leppings Lane terrace.

People were packed so tightly that many of them died standing up. The pitch started to fill with people who were sweating and gasping for breath, the injured and the dead. The police, stewards and paramedics who were present at the game were overwhelmed. Uninjured fans and even players tried to help as best they could, administering CPR and tearing down the advertising hoardings to use as makeshift stretchers. Even as these events unfolded, some police officers were still being deployed to stop the Liverpool fans reaching the Nottingham ones. Some fans attempted to break through this barrier, trying to get the injured people to the waiting ambulances. They were forced back.

The match was receiving live television coverage on the BBC's Grandstand program. This disaster unfolded live in front of a horrified audience, resulting in an extreme emotional impact on the British public.

A total of 94 people died on the day, with the death toll rising to 95 four days later when 14 year old Lee Nicol died in hospital from his injuries. The final death count was reached in March 1993 when Tony Bland died after spending nearly four years in a coma. Ninety six people dead. And that's without the 766 injured fans, and the 300 that went to hospital. It was a disaster in the most truthful sense of the word.

The Hillsborough disaster did not only touch clubs in England but the disaster was known worldwide to clubs around the world. On 19 April 1989 (the following Wednesday after the disaster), a European Cup semi final between AC Milan and Real Madrid was played. The referee blew his whistle 6 minutes into the game to stop play and hold a minute's silence for those who lost their lives tragically at Hillsborough. About 20 seconds into the silence the Milan fans on the Curva Sud began to sing Liverpool's anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone" as a tribute to those who died.

Normally now I would go into detail about the inquiry, but I'm not going to. Instead, I would like to mention what the British press did. The Wednesday following the disaster, the Sun newspaper's front page consisted of a headline 'THE TRUTH', and three sub-headlines: 'Some fans picked pockets of victims'; 'Some fans urinated on the brave cops'; 'Some fans beat up PC giving kiss of life'. The article went on to claim that 'drunken Liverpool fans viciously attacked rescue workers as they tried to revive victims', and quote an unnamed policeman who claimed that a dead girl's body had been abused by Liverpool fans who 'were openly urinating on us and the bodies of the dead'. The article contradicted the reported behaviour of many Liverpool fans, who actively helped the security personnel to stretcher away a large number of victims and gave first aid to many of the injured.

The Sun's editor Kevin MacKenzie designed this front page, and in their 'History of the Sun', Peter Chippendale and Chris Horrie wrote:
"As MacKenzie's layout was seen by more and more people, a collective shudder ran through the office [but] MacKenzie's dominance was so total there was nobody left in the organisation who could rein him in except Murdoch. [Everyone] seemed paralysed, "looking like rabbits in the headlights", as one hack described them. The error staring them in the face was too glaring. It obviously wasn't a silly mistake; nor was it a simple oversight. Nobody really had any comment on it—they just took one look and went away shaking their heads in wonder at the enormity of it. It was a "classic smear".

Following this report, the Sun was boycotted by most newsagents in Liverpool who refused to stock it. Large numbers of readers cancelled their orders, and refused to buy from shops that stocked the tabloid. MacKenzie tried to validate his report in 1993, and again in 2006, saying that he only did so because the paper's owner Richard Murdoch ordered him to do so. MacKenzie would repudiate this apology in November 2006, saying that he only apologised because the newspaper's owner Rupert Murdoch ordered him to do so. He said, "I was not sorry then and I'm not sorry now". He again refused to apologise in 2007 when appearing on the BBC's Question Time. The Sun itself issued an apology "without reservation" in a full page opinion piece on 7 July 2004, saying that it had "committed the most terrible mistake in its history." The Liverpool Echo did not accept the apology, calling it "shabby" and "an attempt, once again, to exploit the Hillsborough dead."

My family does not buy the Sun or the Daily Mail. Neither do my friends. I live in Merseyside, and tomorrow I can guarantee that almost everyone here will be silent at 3.06pm tomorrow. I am a Liverpool supporter, and I can tell you that those 96 people have not and will not be forgotten by any of us. I will be paying a visit to the memorial at Anfield this weekend, as will many other people I know. Next year, it will be 20 years since this disaster happened, and the families and friends of the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives have still not been given the truth. Surely, after all these years, that's the least they deserve?

You'll Never Walk Alone:
John Alfred Anderson (62); Thomas Howard (39); Colin Mark Ashcroft (19); Thomas Anthony Howard (14); James Gary Aspinall (18 ); Eric George Hughes (42); Kester Roger Marcus Ball (16); Alan Johnston (29); Gerard Bernard Patrick Baron (67); Christine Anne Jones (27); Simon Bell (17); Gary Philip Jones (18 ); Barry Sidney Bennett (26); Richard Jones (25); David John Benson (22); Nicholas Peter Joynes (27); David William Birtle (22); Anthony Peter Kelly (29); Tony Bland (22); Michael David Kelly (38 ); Paul David Brady (21); Carl David Lewis (18 ); Andrew Mark Brookes (26); David William Mather (19); Carl Brown (18 ); Brian Christopher Mathews (38 ); David Steven Brown (25); Francis Joseph McAllister (27); Henry Thomas Burke (47); John McBrien (18 ); Peter Andrew Burkett (24); Marion Hazel McCabe (21); Paul William Carlile (19); Joseph Daniel McCarthy (21); Raymond Thomas Chapman (50); Peter McDonnell (21); Gary Christopher Church (19); Alan McGlone (28 ); Joseph Clark (29); Keith McGrath (17); Paul Clark (18 ); Paul Brian Murray (14); Gary Collins (22); Lee Nicol (14); Stephen Paul Copoc (20); Stephen Francis O'Neill (17); Tracey Elizabeth Cox (23); Jonathon Owens (18 ); James Philip Delaney (19); William Roy Pemberton (23); Christopher Barry Devonside (18 ); Carl William Rimmer (21); Christopher Edwards (29); David George Rimmer (38 ); Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons (34); Graham John Roberts (24); Thomas Steven Fox (21); Steven Joseph Robinson (17); Jon-Paul Gilhooley (10); Henry Charles Rogers (17); Barry Glover (27); Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton (23); Ian Thomas Glover (20); Inger Shah (38 ); Derrick George Godwin (24); Paula Ann Smith (26); Roy Harry Hamilton (34); Adam Edward Spearritt (14); Philip Hammond (14); Philip John Steele (15); Eric Hankin (33); David Leonard Thomas (23); Gary Harrison (27); Patrik John Thompson (35); Stephen Francis Harrison (31); Peter Reuben Thompson (30); Peter Andrew Harrison (15); Stuart Paul William Thompson (17); David Hawley (39); Peter Francis Tootle (21); James Robert Hennessy (29); Christopher James Traynor (26); Paul Anthony Hewitson (26); Martin Kevin Traynor (16); Carl Darren Hewitt (17); Kevin Tyrrell (15); Nicholas Michael Hewitt (16); Colin Wafer (19); Sarah Louise Hicks (19); Ian David Whelan (19); Victoria Jane Hicks (15); Martin Kenneth Wild (29); Gordon Rodney Horn (20); Kevin Daniel Williams (15); Arthur Horrocks (41); Graham John Wright (17).

Further reading:
Hillsborough Justic Campaign
Hillsborough Family Support Group
Liverpool Football Club Memorial Page