The heartache of Hillsborough

Twenty years ago to the day ninety six people all went to watch a football match and never came back.

FA Cup Semi Final day for one side is usually a day to live long in the memory, one to never forget.

Sadly for Liverpool Football Club this time it was for the wrong reason.

Their game against Nottingham Forest on April 15th 1989 was only six minutes old when referee Ray Lewis blew the whistle to call the game off.

By this time many of their fans were already dead. Panic, confusion and fear had set in.

Air was sucked from the lungs of those in the Leppings Lane End as overcrowding in the pens meant fatal crushing against against the metal barriers.

The pitch at Hillsborough became a makeshift mortuary as bodies young and old were left cold.

One ambulance made it onto the pitch while a further forty were parked outside the ground, held back by police as they reported drunken fans fighting.

Shamefully, the only fight happening on the terraces was for survival.

Fans were left to look after themselves; people were pulled breathless from the terraces, advertising hoardings were turned into makeshift stretchers while many desperately administered first aid.

While most were lucky to get out alive, the rest were not.

Twenty years on and the ninety six that never came back are kept alive by a city that still hasn’t given up on them.

Beautiful, heart wrenching scenes will be played out at Anfield today, as they are every year to remember those who died at Hillsborough.

And while these emotional moments are what keeps those lost souls alive, the unwavering fight for justice is what keeps the families wounds as raw as they were two decades ago.

Through the Taylor Report the dead left an inadvertent legacy of all seater stadia.

While football got a revolution, the victim’s families never caught a glimpse of anyone seeking redemption.

Campaigners still call for a fresh inquiry or inquest, anything that might bring a morsel of accountability and closure.

Despite questions still remaining about the actions or lack of actions of those working for South Yorkshire Police, the 15:15 cut off point in the coroner’s report and the limitations of subsequent investigations the Government and European Courts don’t want any new evidence to be examined.

The fact is that the people of Liverpool know more than anyone dares to investigate.

It’s just a shame their voices can’t be heard above the silence of the guilty.