I watched a lot of the coverage yesterday and in view of what has happened since you can not understand just how bad it was.
So many things failed on the day which in this day and age we take for granted.
There were problems with forged tickets and Tickets were not being checked in any exclusion zone(see below*) around the Leppings Lane end was a big error. They had also given this smaller end to Liverpool fans being 6,000 tickets less than Forest. This error was then compounded by the fatal error by the police decision to open the gates and let the Liverpool fans go rushing in with nothing to stop them heading for the middle tunnel which lead to the deaths of so many rather than to either the left or right which although busy was not deadly overcrowded.
Had they announced a delay to the kick off, as mentioned on TV yesterday by Kenny Dalgleish, this would also have helped as the fans were rushing in as the game was about to kick off and unbelievably kicked off on time . So if a later ko had been decided instead of the decision to open the gates the situation could have been calmed down, and the police could have had someone go to the area in pens 3 and 4 behind the goal to report on the situation
The chief superintendent David Duckenfield who was in charge had not done such an operation before, indeed the year before, when Liverpool were also there, when another officer was in charge they had the exclusion zone* in place and everything went off okay although I gather there was fighting between fans which they did not want a repeat of. Duckenfield did not want to lose face and having no real experience in this area rushed into the fatal decisions he made but although he resigned he nor anyone else has ever faced any charges.
Anyone see the poor ambulance man who tried to save lives that day he still feels guilty even though he was able to help BUT where were the other ambulances? They were all waiting on standby and none of them were told to come and help until it was too late and they were just transporting bodies.
The police treated this when it started as hooligans trying to start a pitch invasion or to get to oppositions fans, as of course in the 80's this did happen now and again BUT this if it happened it was near the end of games when fans tried to abandon the game, or tried to get to the other fans, not a few minutes in. The fences, which had been put up all over the country(including Filbert Street of course) because of the hooligan element, were of course the reason why so many died as there was no way out and that is why they had to come down.
RIP Those 96 who died and my thoughts go out to all the relatives and friends of those involved who said goodbye to them on a Matchday morning and never saw them return.
