By twelve I was able to handle myself right in the middle of the Kop, that was just the experience you gained on terracing, I just want to make the point that No body was safe in them central pens that day no matter where you stood, what level of experience of terracing you had.
This ground was unsafe for big games, the Leppings Lane always struggled to contain teams with big support because it was so much smaller than the other side, yet they used the ground as a neutral venue for semi finals.
I remember an Evertonian mate telling me about the crush in the Leppings Lane at the 77 league cup final replay, this was a lad who went home and away had loads of experience on terracing, remembering him commenting that he thought he was going to pass out and had never felt so scared at a match.
Then we had the experience of Spurs a few years later, deaths probably only averted by people getting on the pitch before perimeter fencing, but still people with serious injuries, Liverpool the year before with competent policing still was frightening, with lateral fencing the situation was further compounded, with pitch side fencing you couldn't do what Spurs had done and got on the pitch with lateral fencing no one could move sideways, there was a massive tunnel into the central pens and access to the side pens weren't obvious, you needed good policing to monitor the pens and direct people to the outer pens, the was a control room directly above, this was not hard but with no police control to prevent everyone going down the central tunnel when already full we had one of the worst civilian disasters, that was totally and utterly preventable.
What Anne showed so very well was, that with better organisation after this debacle not only could so many lives have been saved, but the cover up itself was one of the worst political outrages to happen in our lives in this country. If it had not happened to vilified football fans, the cover up by the establishments would be an absolute national outrage, factor in the petty scousers thing which further divides football fans at times and prevents them realising it could have been any team with a large following that day.
Seeing it from a mothers point of view, pure humanity, a family struggling to survive in difficult circumstances that any parent can relate to, helps those that have fallen for the all football fans are scumbags message, or the petty all scousers are moaners/thieves/victims to see through their prejudices and realise it is a national outrage that not only was bad policing at a ground with no safety certificate to blame for 97 people directly dying but that was compounded by not allowing adequate medical treatment for the victims with 40 odd ambulances kept outside and then a political cover up from the highest levels that sort to redirect blame on to the victims that resulted in so many other families suffering pain, family break ups, alcoholism and suicide that continues to today. This has implications for people suffering from Grenfell and other tragedy's.
Me and my wife cried from start to finish, She'd just started work in the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, not sure whether the next person to come in was one of her friends, her uncles, I'd phoned her from a phone box by the flyover in Walton, waiting in the queue of worried people, anxious waiting to here anything to tell them their loved ones were safe, to tell her I hadn't gone because I knew she'd be terrified.
The programme was so realistic, it took us back to 89 but those days we were young, didn't have kids and seeing it through the eyes of Anne and her family was like seeing it for the first time from a parents perspective, knowing what pressures fighting back against things puts on a family, knowing the love you have for your kids, and seeing the humanity come shining through against all odds. Kevin Sampson and all involved have done a worthwhile job helping to show others what we've always known.
