FightLikeAGirl
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Wasn't there a near accident at Hillsborough before the actual disaster? That place was an accident waiting to happen.
I've only been there since the disaster but having seen film footage of the stadium at the time, the signage for the outer pens was almost invisible. The obvious place to go was the central pens, particularly when it was clear that thr game had already started. But the operational plan was supposed to deal with that, by sealing off those pens if they were seen to be full, and directing fans to the outer pens.To me, you are missing one of the key points which pretty much everyone in football knew and inevitably you must have known from interviewing fans at other clubs...Every football follower who went frequently to games knew Sheff Wed pens behind the goal were a nightmare if you got in the middle ones and there was always crushes at every game for away fans with big followings. I always used to make my way to the corner ones - view not as good but knew I could breathe comfortably. The problem with the FA Cup is 20,000 fans turn up from Liverpool and a good 10-15000 of them are not regular away followers. They wouldn't know. The question though, is those that arrived late and pushed from the back - were they part of the 10-15000 or were some of them "regular away fans" who definitely knew the problem of that stadium, and if so were culpable in some degree?
Wasn't there a near accident at Hillsborough before the actual disaster? That place was an accident waiting to happen.
Went there around that time always remember being rammed in to a couple ov pens while one was empty next to usWasn't there a near accident at Hillsborough before the actual disaster? That place was an accident waiting to happen.
Spot-on. Anyone who had visited that stadium knew it was an accident waiting to happen. There was a huge cover up and that will become even clearer over the next few weeks when the trial starts of some of those who are alleged to have been involved.Typical police lies. It's been comprehensively shown that ticketless fans weren't a significant issue as the Taylor Report showed that there was about as many people in the Leppings Lane as tickets issued. There was no army of ticketless fans. And the well-established operational plan, which Duckenfield chose to ignore, had police cordons on Leppings Lane checking tickets so no ticketless fans could get to the turnstiles. So even if they did, that was all down to a negligent Match Commander.
And alcohol wasn't an issue, despite the police insisting that all the victims were tested for alcohol in the blood. None were found to have consumed significant amounts. And if they did, so what? People have a drink before football matches.
The fact is that Hillsborough, as an unsafe stadium, was an accident waiting to happen at that time. But even that might have been avoided except that Duckenfield fucked up time and time again, knew he'd fucked up almost instantly and in true police fashion a cover up was instituted by lying and briefing the media. That's a tactic the police clearly still use today. He knew he'd given the order to open the gates yet told a barefaced lie that fans had forced it just minutes later. He was a lazy, lying, negligent **** and should have served time.
And those lies played a large part in how we're treated as fans over 30 years on, with not being allowed to drink at our seats, on coaches or on trains, along with other numerous humiliations.
The worst crushes I have been in following City were at Leppings Lane and the Scoreboard End at Old Trafford. I went to Hillsborough for a game in the 80s (think it ended 0-0). The crowd was only 30,000 plus but it was so dangerous in the City end we left at half time. I also had a terrible experience at Old Trafford at one Cup game (lots of our fans had jibbed in). We had to climb up into the top section to get away from it. Fans were treated like cattle.To me, you are missing one of the key points which pretty much everyone in football knew and inevitably you must have known from interviewing fans at other clubs...Every football follower who went frequently to games knew Sheff Wed pens behind the goal were a nightmare if you got in the middle ones and there was always crushes at every game for away fans with big followings. I always used to make my way to the corner ones - view not as good but knew I could breathe comfortably. The problem with the FA Cup is 20,000 fans turn up from Liverpool and a good 10-15000 of them are not regular away followers. They wouldn't know. The question though, is those that arrived late and pushed from the back - were they part of the 10-15000 or were some of them "regular away fans" who definitely knew the problem of that stadium, and if so were culpable in some degree?