The Rolling Football Thread: Season 2025/26 - thread 4

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/sports/5481141-the-rolling-football-thread-season-202526-thread-3?page=40&reply=151472506

Today marks 37 years since the Hillsborough disaster, we should never forget that 97 fans went to a football match and tragically lost their lives.

A permanent tribute was unveiled at our new stadium today 💙❤

The disdain that came the fans way was disgusting and not forgotten.

My heart is heavy for those who lost their lives, and for their loved ones whose lives were also changed forever. Never forgotten.

It is astonishing that the Hillsborough Law has still not been enacted.

It is just so so heartbreaking.

I have watched a few documentaries on it-the individual stories are devastating and the complete and utter mess that was made of it makes it worse.
We are an Arsenal family-my DS's are third generation-their dad and granddad before them.

That is what the fabric of football is and so many families at Hillsborough ripped apart.

We are all with you 💔

I will never forget that day. A dark day in football.

I was just a kid at the time and didn’t fully realise how awful it was. I’ve since seen so many programmes and articles about it now and I’m still horrified at how people were treated. 💔

Phew! That was nervy!

Have we got anyone fit for 115?

Talk about contrasts in the Champions League semis:
PSG v Bayern Munich promises to be an absolute feast of beautiful football.
Atleti v Arsenal - basically, the Dark Arts Derby, a snarling, time-wasting dog of a match.

JFT97 YNWA. No one should ever go to a football match and not come home again. I can highly recommend the Hillsborough dramatisation done by Jimmy McGovern, it’s written beautifully and captures the heartbreak and devastation of the day incredibly.

Thanks for the new thread, Dunc! Checking in very late for the run-in - sorry!!

I watched that a couple of years ago and I really recommend it. I still remember it now.

I can't watch any of the Hillsborough films etc. Every time i go past the memorial at the ground i leave a flower. But it is so hard to be there.
My grandad was stewarding on that day, and i was watching coverage from Germany. It was a very tense 24 hours until i heard he was ok and that he'd been at the Forest end. Of course, that meant he was safe, but it also meant, because he had to keep stewarding, that he saw it all.

RIP

@Brefugee that must have left him very traumatised.

I have also watched Jimmy McGovern's dramatisation.

I admit the story that sticks with me-maybe resonates with me is the mum and her teenage son who go separate ways at the turnstile so he can stand with his mates.
I am welling up writing this.
It could have been any of us.

@burblish what is the Hillsborough law?

💔

I can only imagine going through the Leppings Lane turnstiles because i generally sit in the Kop at the other side. But even those turnstyles - i think they are from very soon after the rest of the stadium was built - are very very narrow and if there are a lot of people i wait until they've all gone in. I'm not huge, and if i were any wider i don't think i'd fit through.

Without googling the dates,I remember Heysel,Bradford,Hillsbourgh happening close together it probably didn't but just seemed that way at the time for me anyway.

Heysel and Bradford were in the same year, 1985. I remember watching Heysel,

Likewise I was in a pub watching the match.

I was aged about 12 when Heysel happened. I remember the match being on TV at home. Bradford was only a couple of months afterwards. We had one of the Saturday sport programmes on and it was a newsflash on there.

Yes that’s the story that gets to me, I go to the match with my 16 year old boy. The very idea of it gives me chills.

@Brefugee how difficult for your grandad. I can’t imagine the things he must have seen that day.

My grandad never really talked about it, but shortly afterwards he switched from working at Hillsborough and caused (near) ructions by going to work at Bramall Lane!! (even to the point that he bought my #2 a bloody Sheffield United scarf)

At the time, and i have no reason to believe it is not the truth, he was pretty ancient by then, he said that Wednesday were applying an upper age limit for stewards, and United didn't. It meant he could get to see football and earn a bit of money, i don't think he was ever really that attached to Wednesday (not in the way my grandma was). He did get some compensation money from the fund, though, not much but he gave it to his grandchildren.

I was at another game on 15 April 1989 and knew nothing until listening to Sports Report in the car at 5pm.

Sorry for more sad news but just saw this-so sad-

Former Juventus and Arsenal GK Alex Manninger has passed away in a car accident at 48 years old.

I know, that was no age. So sad.

RIP double winner Alex Manninger