15th April 1989It feels weird to write this because I tend to try not to think about it to be honest these days. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it today though...
For those interested, I can still remember that day quite clearly. I went with a friend and my father to the game, with the intention of arriving early and soaking up the atmosphere before the semi. At the time, Forest were troublesome opposition for us (especially their winger who's name escapes me) and for some reason I was worried about the result. The driver there was a nightmare, the traffic was stationery and it took over an hour to just go a couple of miles. Back then, kick-offs being put back wasn't the done thing, so when the traffic cleared, I remember speeding to try and get there in reasonable time. Arriving at Hillsborough, it was very busy outside the ground, and lots of people were milling around, and my father went off to the stands on the left of the ground, whilst my friend and I looked for Pen B of Leppings Lane. However, the police opened the exit gate, and everyone piled in through that (I still have my complete ticket)... I remmeber going through a dark tunnel before popping up fairly central to the back of the goal, but at the back. I clearly remember the singing going through that dark tunnel. The buzz was that Hansen was playing, quite a surprise (I think I remember that correctly anyway). We tried to work our way to the centre, but it was too congested to get far. Then the game kicked off and it was heaving. I remember being squashed against a fairly old guy, whose eyes were rolled upwards and I thought he'd fainted, so tried making a bit of room, but it was impossible. It was a really hot day.
Gonzalez 40I never suggested that his spells of going into himself was match long. The first goal in the 2nd half of the Euro final was just the thing to...
I'll leave some details out at this point.
By the time we hit the cross bar (Beardsley), I was back near the back of the stand again, and people were started to be lifted up to the seats above. I gave my mate a leg up and he was pulled up, then the same for me, my friend pulling me up. The image was captured on quite a few magazines and newspapers, kind of weird seeing yourself like that. Anyway, we then saw a surreal situation unfold. I remember looking at people lying on the pitch and buttuming they had fainted. You go to a match on a sunny day and I guess your head doesn't compute that people are dead. I watched people giving heart mbuttage, and there were applause when people came round, but gasps when they fell back down again. Again, I won't go into detail on the next hour.
Leaving the ground I had no way of contacting my father, this was pre mobile phone being commonplace days. They'd placed bodies next to his stand and one apparently looked like me but was covered, and it took something out of him. We found each other eventually, and drove home listening the body count rise on the radio. I was stunned, my friend just cried. Even in the car, I couldn't quite comprehend those people lying on the pitch were dead.. and the whole thing took years to sink in.
Safe to say, I can say with 100% authority the S*n printed nothing but lies.
