Hillsborough 'Survivors'

[Molby]

not sure where to post this

there's a condolencies thread and there's a thread about the memorial

 

what I want to ask is, are there any people on here who were in Leppings Lane Pen 3 or 4 that day and were injured or felt crushed/in danger at the time?

 

on second thoughts, let me extend the definition - was anyone there at the game that day? it's not for me to define 'survivor'

[Guest Snorky]

Me.

 

East Stand (the one opposite the tv cameras).

[sirstan]

Me.

 

Leppings Lane Pen 4. Crushed, slightly injured, definitely in danger of "going under" a couple of times.

[Falconhoof]

I don't know what number pen I was in. It was the one to the left as you look out on the pitch. I wasn't crushed at all. Had no idea what was going on or how I could have helped. I wish I could have done something.

[Elisha_Scott]

I was in the middle pen to the right as you came out of that c*** of a tunnel.

[oakie bob]

left side of Brucies goal, got my mate Helen over and went over after her, was nearly pushed back in by a copper, once on the pitch we went into the goal telling Grobbelaar to get the game called off

[Billy Dane]

I was in the upper stand of Leppings Lane, away from harm. Could see it unfolding below us and knew people had died before leaving the ground but no idea just how many.

 

Knew Francis McAllister who died that day. At his funeral I found out he'd got out but went back into the crowd to try and rescue his mate who was still trapped. Neither got out. RIP.

[Guest Snorky]

I was in the upper stand of Leppings Lane, away from harm. Could see it unfolding below us and knew people had died before leaving the ground but no idea just how many.

 

Knew Francis McAllister who died that day. At his funeral I found out he'd got out but went back into the crowd to try and rescue his mate who was still trapped. Neither got out. RIP.

 

I met Frank on the day, he was a mate of a mate. He along with Nicky Joynes were the 'two' from our party that never returned. A very good mate had to identify their bodies in the ground.

 

I went to both funerals, but for Franks I had to leave early to go to a wedding, same suit different tie..

[Billy Dane]

He was a good lad. It was a strange feeling but I thought his funeral was the most "uplifting" funeral I have ever been to, before or since.

 

Went to Anfield to pay my respects and his family had put his fireman's hat at the spot where he used to stand on the Kop. The sight and smell of all the flowers on the pitch and all the mementoes on the Kop was both extremely sad and inspiring at the same time.

[R A Softlad]

I was chatting with Gary Church just before the game before we got moved into single file outside the gates. He was the first to get buried.

[Andy Mac]

I was at Uni in the North East at the time. A mate of my dad's promised me a ticket and I was due to meet him at Sheffield train station. I set off to meet him, don't know what made me do it, but I called my dad to check that everything was still on course from a station phone box

 

My dad said he thought so, cos he'd heard nothing from his mate, Tony, but said he'd check. I called him back from the same callbox and he said that Tony had left but his missus said he was giving his spare to his cousin, Phil (later turned out that the ticket had originally been promised to the cousin and that he wasn't going to go but changed his mind). Tony had left a message for my dad at the local boozer explaining things.

 

My girlfriend at the time was with me (seeing me off) and I'd already bought the ticket to Sheffield, so I had a choice, go to the game on the off-chance of picking up a spare or do something else. Again, I made a really bizarre choice of not going to the game but to go to the races instead with the girlfriend (I think it was Thirsk) which was on the way between Newcastle and Sheffield. I've been to tens of games without a ticket, so I've no idea why I chose not to on that day.

 

I listened to the events unfold on the radio and it was obviously harrowing. I tried for hours and hours to get in touch with my parents to tell them I was ok. As far as they knew I'd gone on spec. But the lines were constantly engaged until very late in the night.

 

When I eventually got through they were so relieved. That's my rather insignificant story

 

Tony's tickets were in the Leppings Lane end and he and Phil were part of the crush and sad events. They were both strapping lads. I'm told they helped many people get out of the pen. They then helped the emergency services look after the fans who were hurt and dying. I was introduced to Phil about three years later in a pub and he was still obviously greatly affected by the events of the day. He didn't talk directly about it but when my dad said to him that I was due to get the ticket for the game he said "Jesus lad, I wouldn't have wanted you to see what went on there"

 

My mum told me about 10 years ago that Phil had died. He become a shadow of his former self physically and he'd taken to drinking very heavily. His wife had left him and taken his son as he'd become very abusive and refused to get any support/help.

[Cliff M]

Was promised a ticket for the Leppings Lane by a mate who let me down on the morning of the game. Went to the Everton game instead (the old days) with a Blue friend who had a spare. It's never sunk in how lucky that was.

[fyds]

I don't know what number pen I was in. It was the one to the left as you look out on the pitch. I wasn't crushed at all. Had no idea what was going on or how I could have helped. I wish I could have done something.

Much the same as Graham. It wasn't long before I knew something was going on that wasn't right though.

[RP]

Had a ticket promised - got a call the day before giving me the "good news" that it had been swapped and now I had a seat, so wouldn't have to stand. I was 19 and totally gutted to be in the seats with the boring old farts.

 

The fella I went to the game with was in Leppings Lane the year before and his words (trying to console me in my depression about having to sit at the match) will live with me forever : "you're lucky not to be standing today, it was murder in there last year". Well he wasn't quite right - the murders occured in 1989.

 

I remember someone in the crowd got a load of verbals for making stuff up on the way out when he said a dozen people had been killed. And then we got ambushed by Forest fans throwing bricks.

[Abbo]

I was in the Leppings Lane upper stand. We helped a couple of lads get up out of the terrace. I'd actually swapped my terrace ticket for a seat ticket the night before.

[downunder]

Leppings Lane seats.

 

Just befor I left home I remember trelling my mum I didn't have as good seat as the year before. I remember that conversation like yesteday, it saved them a lot of panic as they knew I wasn't standing. It was the days before mobiles so there was no chance of calling to say I was OK.

 

It was chilling leaving the ground, a truly awful day. We knew there had been deaths but not as many as we then heard on the radio when just outside the ground.

 

On another note, to this day I have still not seen the goal Everton scored to get to Wembley, I genuinley feel sorry for their fans (many had family and friends at Hillsborough) and also the Forest ones who witnessed the events.

[RP]

... and also the Forest ones who witnessed the events.

 

 

F*** them. I know it was only a handful of them and I am sure that they were ignorant of the facts at the time, but f*** them anyway.

[Guest Dogz]

I was there with my dad and brother. We went in Pen 4 but after a few minutes realised it was too packed so made our way back and went around to the right hand side pen looking towards the pitch. It was virtually empty in there.

 

Still affected by what I saw, heard and felt that day.

[Gravy]

Leppings Lane in the middle. Battled back through the tunnel and got out to go to one of the side pens at about 2.45. It absolutely scared the crap out of me. Got to the side pen and it was half empty.

[Redwire]

I was there with my dad and brother. We went in Pen 4 but after a few minutes realised it was too packed so made our way back and went around to the right hand side pen looking towards the pitch. It was virtually empty in there.

 

Still affected by what I saw, heard and felt that day.

 

Pretty similar to me that, except we came out of the centre pens and went around to the left.

[Jim Price]

Me, my Dad, and his two mates qualified for two seats and two terraces. I was only 13 but fancied standing. My Dad and his mates went the year before so knew it wasn't for me, his mates took the terrace tickets. They also decided pre match that they would go in a side pen based on what it was like in 1988. It was a bit dicey outside getting lifted off my feet a few times, a definite sense that there was no control over what was going on. Feel very fortunate to have been as removed as I was.

[Bologna]

I was on my year abroad in Italy as part of my uni course and so wasn't there.

 

I had been there in 1988 though, with Molby and David Hodgson, and I remember that being a frightening enough experience by itself. We were in the lefthand central pen as you look at the stand from the pitch. Although having said that, the fear, if that's the word, only materialised with hindsight. At the time it just seemed like another big game with a packed crowd. At the time I still only had a slight build and it was "normal" for me to feel slightly crushed/unsafe when standing at all big games with a capacity crowd.

 

In 1989 I was watching sport on telly in the student halls when the news came thorugh. The full enormity of events only really hit me the following day when firstly my Mum called to say that Molby had phoned to say him and DH were safe and then when I saw the lunchtime TV news.

 

I don't wish to sound crass, but although I wasn't physically at Hillsborough in 1989 I still feel like a survivor becasue I definitely would have been there if I'd been in the UK.

[Poolfrog]

I was in the seating above the terracing in the Leppings Lane end.

 

The strange thing is, there was no communication in the ground about what was going on. We saw people trying to climb the fences below and also helped people clamber up into the area where we were sitting, but we thought that it was just the sort of congestion we'd seen many times at Anfield for big games. It was extremely commonplace in the sixties to see people passed down to the front of the Kop over the heads of standing supporters having passed out from the crush (26,000 people were crammed into the Kop at capacity), so everybody by me thought it was the same sort of thing going on. We had absolutely no idea whatsoever that anyone had died and we were sitting a few feet from where it happened.

 

As it was also in the pre-mobile phone area, we weren't told about it as we trudged the three miles or so to Sheffield station. Having moved to London at that time it was mid-evening when I got home that I first heard that anyone had died. Seems hard to imagine now but we were just told eventually that the match had been abandoned - but not why. The lack of communication was shocking really.

[JRC]

I remember someone in the crowd got a load of verbals for making stuff up on the way out when he said a dozen people had been killed.

 

That is something that still amazes - and scares - me. For 45 minutes I watched from the East Stand the carnage on the pitch, the ad board stretchers, the unmoving bodies with coats over them - and the obscenity of Police with dogs forming a security cordon - but somehow couldn't connect it with actual deaths. I heard 5 dead mentioned as we were leaving the ground, and people shouted it down, then 12 confirmed on the radio in the car; I stopped on the outskirts of Sheffield to try to call home and told this to the queue at the phone box, and they refused to believe me. There was a kind of collective denial, or cognitive dissonance going on.

 

Hillsborough left an indelible mark on me psychologically, although I was never in any immediate danger - more the might-have-beens (I was in the dreadful crush at the Arsenal semi in '81, and decided then that sitting was not such a bad idea, even for a dedicated Kopite), and particularly the evident distress and subsequent relief in my wife/sister/mum's voices when I finally got through on the phone, around 5 o'clock, and how for some that call - and relief - never came; but perhaps that denial - not really appreciating that I was sat/stood in a football stand impotently watching the last breaths of 96 people in front of me - protected me and others from the demons that haunted and still haunt many that were closer to it.

 

JFT96. RIP. YNWA.

[David Hodgson]

not sure where to post this

there's a condolencies thread and there's a thread about the memorial

 

what I want to ask is, are there any people on here who were in Leppings Lane Pen 3 or 4 that day and were injured or felt crushed/in danger at the time?

 

on second thoughts, let me extend the definition - was anyone there at the game that day? it's not for me to define 'survivor'

 

Me.

 

I was there with you, albeit your ticket was in the Leppings and mine the main stand.

 

That was a long hour and half spent waiting for you outside that sh*tty ground, wondering, ya know.