on April 15th 1989

I was ona coach to the semi at Villa park and we stopped at a pub in Nuneaton for food and drink on the way - at around 1230 a policeman put his head round the door and said lads if you want to see the kick off you had better leave now , the motorways are clogged up and the roads round Villa park are pretty busy - so we took that advise got to villa Park in good time and made our way to the Hote End where we watched the game

My understanding of Hillsborough ( and forgive me if I am wrong not had a chnace to read the report headlines yet as I am at work ) is that as Liverpool had played Forest there the year before , lots of liverpool fans a) travelled without tickets - as they had got in the year and b) many more decided that they could stay in the pubs till very late and get straight into the ground ,faced with the two factors a crush developed outside and once a gate was forced / opened a further crush developed as the fans went for the nearest access point to the pitch - the already crowded middle section which was full of the early arrivals

Perhaps we were naive but when we were advised a time to arrive and a policeman backed that up we went with it - but it appears that the liverpool fans knew better and aided by an inept and panic stricken police system the disaster was caused

Posted By: south, Sep 12, 16:09:33