Ok Man City probably wouldn't have made a semi-final back in 1989 - but the fact is that whoever was allocated that end the consequences would have been the same because this wasn't an accident .
Many thanks for your support PeterSwales
You're right that the Hillsborough tragedy was something waiting to happen.
Man City may not have made a semi-final in 1989, but they did in 1981
With the luck of the draw, Man City were drawn to play Ipswich at Villa Park, whilst Spurs were drawn to play Wolves at Hillsborough. Spurs fans were allocated the Leppings Lane end at Hillsborough, but it could have been City if the draw had been gone differently
This youtube clip -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtzHVe2mEN0 - shows some of the carnage that resulted at the Spurs end with fans spilling onto the pitch due to overcrowding in the central area of the Lepping Lane terraces
Many serious injuries resulted including broken legs, but by the grace of God, no fatalities.
The reason why the outcome wasn't worse came down to 2 key factors:
1. A senior policeman who knew what he was doing, who recognised the situation and took action to open the gates to relieve the overcrowding (incidentally this was not the actual match commander - see
http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=292257.msg11514742#msg11514742)
2. In 1981, the Leppings Lane terraces had not been divided into 5 pens with radial fences. As a result, some of the pressure of overcrowding could dissipate to the sides. This was not possible in 1989
As a result of the 1981 debacle, semi-finals did not take place at Hillsborough again until 1987, when Coventry played Leeds - and again there was serious overcrowding and injuries at the Leppings Lane, and the kick off had to be delayed due to the notorious bottlekneck outside of the terraces
And for the five Hillsborough semi-finals between 1980 and 1989, the ground had no current safety certificate; something which did not appear to concern the FA.
The fact is, Hillsborough was a deathtrap.
In it's semi-final configuration, with two sets of 'away' fans and the ground and the ground split as evenly as possible between both sets of fans, the design flaws of the ground made it positively dangerous.
I hesitate to say that it was an 'accident waiting to happen', because the word 'accident' suggests that there wasn't gross negligence on the part of the South Yorkshire Police, Sheffield Wednesday FC, Sheffield City Council, the FA and Eastwoods Consulting Engineers
But it could have happened to any club
Thanks again for your support. It's really great to see solidarity from other clubs.