Was on the terrace at Blackburn that day when a City fan with a radio turned around to us and said " those scousers are at it again, a forest fan as been killed".
Now I believe he wasn't saying it because we didn't like them, it came through on the radio media as that because that is what they believed to have happened in the very early stages of the tragedy and probably so soon after Heysel.
I was just really gutted about our 4-0 defeat to be honest during the game but like you we went for a pint up there after the game and you could then see how serious it was as we stood in silence with Blackburn fans watching it all on small TV on the bar
The initial reaction to Hillsborough among City fans at Blackburn was definitely that Scousers were at it again. That was in the first half, when people with radios were passing on that the match had been suspended and the first reports started coming through that some people may have died.
It became clear fairly quickly that the numbers of confirmed deaths were rising fast and something altogether different had happened. I remember being on a train back from Blackburn to Victoria after our match, and some guy with a radio was relaying what was being said at that stage.
At this point, correspondents at the ground in Sheffield were suggesting that there'd been dozens of deaths, and passengers throughout the entire carriage on my train, almost all of whom had been at Ewood that afternoon, sat in shocked silence. Normally on the way home after a heavy away defeat, you'd expect a lot of noise from angry post-match recriminations. Not that day. It really didn't seem to matter.
I therefore would have no wish to mock the Hillsborough tragedy. As football fans who travelled round the country in the 1980s, a lot of us, I think, had a feeling of there but for the grace of God when we heard, read and saw what had happened in Sheffield. The subsequent cover-up and smearing of fans involved was a truly shameful episode in the history of our country's justice system.
Nonetheless, I think the excellent post above by
@shackattack above has it right. The tragedy is used by some to try to shut down legitimate criticism of Liverpool fans from outside that club and its fanbase. No matter how bad their behaviour, they seem to justify everything with reference to Hillsborough chants, even songs that don't specifically reference and aren't intended to refer to those events.
I don't think that, in the last few days, City have handled events surrounding Thursday's match very well, to put it mildly. But I do have some sympathy for MCFC when our club, our players and staff as well as our fans have suffered what utter savages from the LFC support have dished out, only for the media to run with a prevailing narrative of an understandable Scouse reaction provoked by Hillsborough chants (when these have been sparse or non-existent, with reliance invariably placed on a wilful misinterpretation of the 'Always the victims' chant).
I share the dismay among many posters on here at what seem weak efforts from our club in the ongoing PR battle over these issues. On the other hand, we face a rival club and support whose hard-faced lack of shame for episodes of significant violence is genuinely staggering. And we face a media whose disinterest in the truth, born of an unquestioning servility to all things Liverpool FC, is truly contemptible.
Anyway, Merry Christmas to all. Except Liverpool FC and their dickhead apologists.
