Hilsborough.x. (please read.in memory of the lives lost)

15th of April 1989. liverpool were in the semi-finals of the F.A. cup, it was laid out to be a day that would be written into history books everywhere...but nobody expected that out of the 24 thousand fans that travelled 96 would never come home and the other 23904 would remember this day till they die.

i wasn't alive on that day..so i don't know what exactly happened and i don't think i'll ever be able to grasp the effect like mi father or uncle....but what i do know is;

the police didn't close the tunnel...they knew the ground was overfilling...there was no way they could let any more people in without their being chaos. instead they let more people through...by the time they resalise it is too late...people are falling off the balcony, holding on for their life...and all because the tunnel wasn't closed.
eventually the game is stopped...people are flooding onto the pitch trying to get to safety...i've only seen replays but u can hear the screams, people yelling 'there's people dying in their, do something'. but what are the players supposed to do, kenny, and hansen made an announcement i don't know what it said but they did.

that day changed the face of football...liverpool fans are the most loyal in the world, they follow their team and they support them. how the press can say what they did after only 4 days after the disaster is a disgrace. the honour of these fans has still not been restored because the people responsilble still, 20 years on, fail to take the blame for what they did.

Hilsborough changed football. for one, the stadiums, they are safer, everyone gets allocated seats, no one gets in without a ticket and the stewards watch over the crowd as if there is everything to lose.

on this day 20 years ago 96 lives were lost and many many more would have to suffer for it for the rest of their lives. these fans will never be forgotten. they represent liverpool football club and connect each and every person involved in the club. After that terrible disaster i don't think any one can even doubt that liverpool fans are the best...the way all the fans gathered to help the mess created by the police....it is extrodinary.

This disaster as terrible but it is the reason why everton fans have mi respect. the way they gathered in the city was immense, friends both liverpool and everton fans joined as one unit to remember these people that only wanted to love the game of football.

as i have said i was not born at this time but watching the Hilsborough remmberance clip before the blackburn game and reading the letters from family to the loved ones who died on that day still bought me to tears. that is how connected a liverpool fan is with the team. it is not just a football team it is a club, connected and bought together by the love of the game the passion for a unit and the friendship you can gain.
Everyone is friends at anfield. On a match day everyone is one, the kop, the grandstand the players. you sit next to someone you don't kno and will probably never see again yet it is as easy to talk with them as it is to with ur family. it is something special.

so on this day, 15th April 2009, 20 years on from the Hilsborough disaster, the event that changed not only the club but the face of football, i ask you, not as a friend, not as a liverpool fan or a student, as a person, i ask you to just give up one minute of your day to take the time out and remember these people who all loved, laughed and lived. Just think about them, how lucky you are. even if you are not connected with liverpool football club in any way, even if you are not connected with football in any way, do it for the 96 famillies who will never be able hold their wife/husband/daughter/son/sister/brother/uncle/aunt/grandparents ever again. do it for the thousands of friends who will never be able to have fun with one of their mates again.

Get off the Pitch by R O'Brien
I trod the turf of Hillsborough ground I screamed at people all around:
'Please help my friends in there dying It seems to me no-one is trying.'
The powers that be just stand and stare, No-one to say 'Go here, go there.'
We grab the boards and start to run Our friends are dying, one by one.
I see a policeman, ask him 'why ?
' Why is he standing idly by ? 'Get off the pitch', he said to me,
'Or you will lose your liberty.'
'Please help them, please!' I scream and shout,
'Get off the pitch, or you'll be out.'
I trod the turf of Hillsborough ground,
No more to have those friends around.


to those 96 liverpool fans who lost their lives on the 15th April 1989. i salute you, you will never be forgotten.
to liverpool footbal club i want to say thank you for being there.
"You'll Never Walk Alone"

xxx