Me and Hillsborough

I’ve never been to Hillsborough, nor am I a Liverpool fan, but it could have been me. Like it could have been a lot of football fans in the mid-late ‘80s.

A year before the Hillsborough disaster I went to see Swindon play at Luton in the semi-final of the Simod Cup. Fans of that time were used to the ‘surge’ during matches. A human tide that would sweep you along and often leave you in a different place to where you started. But that night was something different. I’m not a small man but I was taller at times during this game because my feet weren’t touching the terrace. I was being held up by the people around me. I wasn’t alone. When you meet other fans who were at that game there’s a look in their eye when you discuss it that says: ‘we got away with it that night’.

But get away with it we did. The 96 that day in Sheffield didn’t. It doesn't bear thinking about how much worse it must have been on Leppings Lane that afternoon. 

I was at a Swindon game that day. The transistor radios that some people had with them brought the news through. The FA Cup semi-final had been stopped due to a pitch invasion. The game wasn't re-starting that day. Two people were dead. No, four people were dead. No, more than that. We didn't know the full horror until that evening. And we were told that it was their fault that they were crushed to death.

And to my shame I’m sorry to say that I believed the police reports. It was easy to because I was one of the stereotypes they mentioned as part of the problem. Did I turn up shortly before kick-off? Quite often. Did I have a few drinks before matches? Quite regularly. Was I used to being herded into places and trusting that the authorities knew what they were doing? Absolutely.

If they could hoodwink people like me who went to football matches then it was easy to make that lie stick with the people who didn’t go to or didn’t like football.

I have tremendous admiration for the relatives and support groups that kept fighting, and continue to fight, for the truth. Would I have done in their position? I can only hope so.

Football owes a debt of gratitude to the families who fought for the truth. But more than that, they’re owed justice.