FOOTBALL fans in East Lancashire marked the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster yesterday.

Ramsbottom Hillsborough victim honoured

AN EAST Lancashire man who died in the Hillsborough disaster was honoured at special ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the tragedy.

Barry Glover, 27, of Garnett Street, Ramsbottom, was one of 96 fans killed during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

As part of a memorial service at Anfield’s Kop yesterday, a representative of Mr Glover’s family was offered the freedom of Liverpool.

Ceremonies also took place in Sheffield, where the tragedy happened, as well as Nottingham.

Mr Glover travelled to Sheffield Wednesday’s ground two decades ago yesterday with his father George and a host of friends.

The Liverpool fanatic, who ran a grocers with his father in Bolton Road West, took his place in the Leppings Lane end.

But the former Stubbins Primary and Peel Brow High pupil died amidst the chaos that ensued.

Speaking just after the tragedy, 20 years ago, Mr Glover’s father said he left the stadium, unaware his son had died.

He returned to the ground shortly after to identify a photograph of his body.

The 27-year-old’s wife Stephanie was notified later on.

George Glover was yesterday too upset to talk about his family’s ordeal.

Eyewitness views

A close friend of Stephen Taylor, 51, of Waterfoot, died in the disaster. He said the anniversary had brought the memories ‘flooding back’.

"My friend wanted us to go to the front, but it was below pitch level, so I went to the back – at that fateful moment he decided to stay.

“The ground started to fill up and I was one of the fans help-ing people up onto the second tier.

“I could feel the crush, but I wasn’t afraid. The match was stopped a few minutes in and there was an awful, eerie silence.

“A few minutes later I realised something more was going on.

"A good hour later we got down the tunnel and saw the mangled bars.

"We went to a room like a gymnasium and I was looking for my friend’s distinctive scarf.

"Then I saw him lifeless and that was it.

“It was traumatic, but at the time it wasn’t.

“It was more surreal. It was something that shouldn’t have happened at a football match.”

Lancashire Telegraph assistant chief sub-editor Roger Airey, who was at the game, watched in horror as motionless fans were dragged from the terraces.

"As a Nottingham Forest fan growing up in Hyndburn, chances to see my hero Brian Clough and his team were few and far between.

"So when my dad Nigel managed to get tickets for the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool, it was a thrilling prospect for a 14-year-old football fanatic.

"The first few minutes of the game were played at a spellbinding, frenetic pace, but our attention gradually became drawn to the Leppings Lane end, at the other side of the ground to where we were sitting.

"Fans were beginning to spill over the metal fencing and, although it seems incredibly cruel to say now, the first thought of many Forest fans was that a hooligan-led pitch invasion was taking place.

"At 3.06pm, the referee stopped the game and it soon became clear something altogether more tragic was happening as hundreds of fans were now on the pitch, some sat on the ground gasping for air, some laid motionless.

"Amid the noise and confusion, frantic Liverpool fans began ripping up advertising hoardings to use as makeshift stretchers to ferry the injured to ambulances, which had eventually been let into the ground, waiting at the Forest end.

"By now many Forest fans were angrily appealing to police to be allowed to help but, rightly or wrongly, officers refused.

"We sat in utter shock as one after another, sheets were pulled over the faces of the bodies on the 'stretchers' only 100 yards away from us, confirming our worst fears.

"Around 4pm, unable to help, we left the ground eager to let our family know we were OK, which in the days before mobile phones meant driving several miles to find a phone box that was not beseiged with people doing the same thing.

"It was only on that grim journey home, as we listened to the radio, that the harrowing scale of the tragedy we had just witnessed really became apparent."

DC Tom Whiteley, a police officer on duty at Hillsborough, recalls the day in the video below.

Blackburn Rovers

Former Liverpool player Stephen Warnock – and his Blackburn Rovers team matesa – played their part as a packed Anfield marked the 20-year anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster on Saturday.

As the teams took to the pitch for the Premier League clash, Liverpool supporters sang an emotional rendition of the club’s anthem You’ll Never Walk alone.

They then applauded former Reds defender Warnock, who carried a red and white wreath on to the pitch before laying it in front of the Kop.

The number 96 was displayed in the red and white floral tribute in honour of the Liverpool fans who were crushed to death 20 years ago.

A written message of condolence was passed on from Rovers to those supporters killed in 1989.

What are your memories of Hillsborough? Add your comments below.