Sadness at Hillsborough (100th Post)

Tom and I were off to Hillsborough today to watch Southampton play against Sheffield Wednesday – a must win if they were to have any hope of staying up in the Championship League if 10 points were not deducted. I had high hopes that after their home win against Crystal Palace they would be fired up to put on a good performance. I hoisted the Lincolnshire county flag denoting that Tom and I were to spend that night and most of the weekend in Grimsby following our visit to Sheffield. I hastily threw together a few clothes in a case (but not my wash bag unfortunately), packed the car and then cooked bacon sandwiches for us before setting off at 8.30 a.m. We had an excellent journey up by way of Newbury, Oxford, Northampton, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield arriving at Hillsborough at around 12.15 p.m. I managed to park my car only about 200 yards, if that, from the Leppings Lane entrance to Hillsborough Stadium and on a street tramway route too! We watched several supertrams pass by as we organised our possessions in the boot of the car. Walking back up towards the football ground we spotted a KFC and went in there for lunch. We got chatting to an Owls fan who predicted that Southampton would get three points today as Sheffield Wednesday were awful at present. After lunch we strolled over to the Hillsborough Disaster Memorial which was festooned with flowers, shirts and scarfs (see photo). Wednesday, Sara’s birthday, being the twentieth anniversary of that dreadful event. Tom and I silently prayed for the souls of those who died and for the injured and bereaved. There were many messages left demanding “Justice for the 96” and whilst I can accept their bitterness that nobody was ever prosecuted,and convicted of any crime, I do question what should and could be done now. There was the Taylor Enquiry, the private prosecutions, the Coroner’s Inquests, the re-opening of the Inquiry by Jack Straw and so on. It will not bring those people back and the bereaved, although still hurting, need some closure to this. We then went into the Megastore to get Mary her football bear and me my club pen and walked back along Vere Road into Leppings Lane and to the dreaded turnstiles where so much anger and pushing had occurred that hot April day twenty years ago. The design has changed somewhat and the outer perimeter fencing and gates removed but the restricted turnstiles and exit gates remain as does the sloping tunnel (of death) through which many walked or were carried along to their deaths. Our tickets showed that we were in the Upper Tier of the fateful West Stand but on entering the ground we were told that all Saints Fans would sit in the Lower Tier and we were directed down that same notorious tunnel feeling the sloping ground and empathising with those Liverpool fans who would have found it impossible to turn back once they’d entered it in 1989.

When we got to the front, behind the goal we noticed that 96 seats in the front two rows of where the two death pens had been situated, were cordoned off and a bouquet or floral tribute stuck to each one. It was as if 96 ghosts were sitting in the stand at the front. Tom and I were seated about six rows back from those two floral rows behind the goal on the spot where so many had been crushed that Saturday. It felt quite eerie. A one minute silence was beautifully observed, not a sound anywhere in the ground, and we kicked off, ironically, at around six minutes past three – the time that the Liverpool v. Nottingham Forest game had been abandoned. The football did not, alas, live up to expectations – the highlight being Kelvin Davies booting the ball clean over the North Stand. Saints played poorly and lost 2-0. It really does look like the end of Championship football for them – especially as Nottingham Forest won today. The brightest piece of football news was, however, that Grimsby Town beat Port Vale 3-0 and Chester lost meaning that Grimsby and Bournemouth (who also won) are now four points clear of Chester. One win form the next two games, therefore, will mean Grimsby can look forward to continuing to play league football in 2009/2010. I am convinced that if they do survive and Mike Newell stays, then they will be knocking on the door of League 1 the following season (to play Southampton?).

Tom and I left the ground at the end of normal time and managed to get away in the car without seeing any football traffic at all. I drove on to Grimsby by way of Barnsley, Doncaster, Scunthorpe, and Brigg using the old roads and not the M180/A180. After stopping off at Morrison’s, for some fair trade chocolate, wine, flowers and the contents of my left behind wash bag, we arrived at Mum’s at 7.30 p.m. At 7.55 p.m. I left to go and get some fish and chips from our usual chippie in St. Peter’s Avenue, Cleethorpes to find that it closed at 8.00 p.m. on the dot – four minutes earlier. Fortunately I was able to park just off the Market Place and found that Ernie Beckett’s didn’t close until 9.00 p.m. I brought back three enormous pieces of haddock, chips, mushy peas and scraps – all beautifully cooked and too much for us all to eat. We finished the day by watching Al Murray Live at the Apollo and the football highlights on Match of the Day. Tom went to bed at 10.30 p.m. and after wine and cheese and biscuits, Mum followed at 11.30 p.m. leaving me downstairs to complete this blog. I am now so tired that I will finish here.