Hillsborough: Twenty Year Remembrance

[liverbird]

I got on ESPN.com, went to the soccer net section and under the spotlight section when it rolled over to analysis and they where talking about this, yes it was posted on the 9th, and I started reading.......I found my self thinking back to middle school and reading about Hillsborough one day and at the time I did not think to much about it until today. After I got home I started reading what I could find about Hillsborough going over the links posted in this thread and I found myself crying on the outside and the inside think about how 10 years ago I read about, I was 12 then, 22 now, and now to think it has been 20 years. With that I offer this.....

May the good souls of the 96 who lost there lifes forever be remember in not only the hearts and minds of the Liverpool faithful but in the hearts and minds of all the fans of the beautiful game, and may the 96 souls rest in peace with Lord, Amen

Justice For The 96

You'll Never Walk Alone

well said son

[el-capitano]

Another page for those who want to understand a bit more about the disaster.....

http://www.crowddynamics.com/Disasters/Hillsborough.htm

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Here are some quotes about the Hillsborough Disaster ... Even these quotes make me angry, sad, and the need to seek justice for the people that were hurt. I will just put them under the link.

Link (http://www.liverpoolbanter.co.uk/2009/04/hillsborough-quotes---reports.html)

"There are people in tears here. There was no violence from the Liverpool fans."
BBC presenter Des Lynam, reporting from Hillsborough. Football ECHO, Saturday, April 15, 1989.

"There was no organised response there at all... There was nobody in charge, no plan, no organisation at all... There was no resuscitation equipment there... The scene was just absolute chaos."
Dr John Ashton, Professor of Medicine at the University of Liverpool, who was at Hillsborough.
Special Sunday edition of the ECHO, April 16.


"The saddest and the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish, who said he wept after seeing Liverpool and Everton fans paying moving tributes at Anfield on the day after the disaster.ECHO, Monday, April 17.

"The tragedy of Hillsborough has brought Liverpool to its knees - not in defeat, but in prayer."
The Most Reverend Derek Worlock, Archbishop of Liverpool, during a service in the Metropolitan Cathedral, held on the day after the disaster.
ECHO, Monday, April 17.

"The stories of heroism that have emerged from the horror of Hillsborough humble us all."
ECHO editorial, Tuesday April 18.

"How long are we going to go on treating fans like animals and cattle?"
Terry Fields, Labour MP for Broadgreen, speaking in the House of Commons. ECHO, Tuesday, April 18.

"A poisonous smokescreen is being put up around the Hillsborough disaster.

"It is a vile attempt to divert attention from the stark fact that inadequate crowd control led directly to the deaths of innocent Liverpool supporters.

"It seeks to smear the name of Liverpool fans and is an unforgiveable insult to the memory of the dead. And it will not work - because the one thing lacking from this pathetic package of innuendo is EVIDENCE."
ECHO front-page editorial, Wednesday, April 19, in response to the lies printed in The Sun.

"The best thing for the people of Merseyside to do is what they have been doing since Saturday - stick together. They have reacted in a way no other city in the world would have reacted. They have been magnificent."
Kenny Dalglish, ECHO, Thursday, April 20.

"People arrived from all over the country to take part in the silent tribute. They stood quietly, clutching flowers in one hand and umbrellas in the other as rain fell to match the tragic tears of a heartbroken community."
ECHO report, Saturday, April 22, on the one-minute silence observed throughout Merseyside at 3.06pm that day.

"Through your flowers and your souvenirs you have made what could have been a sombre graveyard a beautiful Easter garden, which is a seed bed for new life, a sign of victory over death, of rising again, in which we must take heart."
Archbishop Derek Worlock, addressing 12,000 mourners at a special memorial service at Anfield. Countless people had filed into the ground and laid a carpet of flowers and scarves on the pitch. ECHO, Monday, April 24.

"My daughters were always so happy in Liverpool and it is appropriate that the city should be their final resting place."
Trevor Hicks, whose family lived in north-west London, on the day his daughters, Sarah, 19, and Victoria, 15, were buried at Allerton Cemetery.
ECHO, Tuesday, April 25.

"There's going to be no whitewash."
Mervyn Jones, assistant chief constable of West Midlands police, who was in charge of the external inquiry into the Hillsborough tragedy.
ECHO, Wednesday, April 26.

"This is to discover what happened, why it happened and what lessons can be learned and recommendations made.

"If criticisms are made of organisations or individuals which are relevant, I shall consider them and make any necessary findings but it is not the purpose of the inquiry to apportion blame."
Lord Justice Taylor, ahead of his public inquiry into the disaster. ECHO, Friday, April 28.

"Hillsborough 15 April 1989. You'll Never Walk Alone."
The wording on the memorial stone outside Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral. ECHO, Saturday April 29.

[Bronaldo]

Didn't get a chance to say earlier, but, i give my deepest condolences to the team, city and to the familes of those who suffered in this disaster.

[rockymtn.mike]

I have the 96 tattooed on me because everything that Liverpool was and will be the 96 helped make this club. Love the families of the 96, love the men and woman who tried to help that day and love the club that cares so much about their fans that as they continue towards the future with an understanding that every great achievement pales in comparison to the life their fans lead.

YNWA the 96, YNWA the city of Liverpool and YNWA LFC

[el-capitano]

from .tv

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n78/el-capitano48/hillsboroughremembered_080409.gif

[el-capitano]

Twenty years ago today, 24,000 Liverpool fans travelled to a football match. 96 never returned. On the anniversary of Britain's worst sporting disaster, we want the world to see the faces of the fans whose hopes and dreams for the future ended that day.

Collectively they've become known as 'The 96' but to the families and friends they left behind, they were simply a dad, a son, a brother and a sister; a cousin, an auntie, an uncle and a grandad; a boyfriend, a husband, a soul mate and a best friend.

As a letter written for this website by the wife of one of those supporters who never came home so eloquently put it, 'To the world my husband is one of the 96, but to me and his children, he was always our number one.'

Today, as Liverpool Football Club and fans everywhere mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster, we're putting faces to the names who, to those who didn't know them, only exist as a list etched into the Hillsborough Memorial marble.

24,000 tickets, 23 turnstiles, 2 criminally overcrowded pens, 96 dead, 766 injured, 20 years ago today - numbers alone don't even begin to tell half the story of a disaster that has shaped Liverpool Football Club and the fans that will forever follow it.

Probably the most significant number in this whole sorry tragedy is the one that depicts the age of each victim on the slide show below.

That number, and the faces staring back at you - captured during happier times without a care in the world - tells you everything you need to know about why the events of April 15 1989 and the fans who died that day will never ever be forgotten.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163964090414-2356.htm

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

I thought that despite the loss the lads played well.

[el-capitano]

Trevor Hicks, Lost both his daughters, Sarah, 19, and Victoria, 15

I was profoundly and forcibly transformed by Hillsborough. Within a few hours I had lost everything of real value, my daughters Sarah and Victoria, my status and responsibilities of Dad and Husband, my respect for the British establishment and any reason to look and plan for 'the future'. All my values and beliefs were shattered. Years on I am slowly rebuilding a different life, trying to 'make the best of a bad job'. I still hurt like hell and keep wanting what cannot be, but like it or not, life will go on, Mother Earth keeps revolving, time doesn't heal, you just get better at dealing with it.

Joan Tootle, Lost her 21-year-old son, Peter

The thing I'll never get over is the morning after the disaster when I went to identify Peter. I was faced with his body behind a sheet of glass. I couldn't hold him, or touch him - nothing. They said he was 'the Coroner’s property now'. They wouldn't let me hold my son one last time, that broke my heart.

Eddie Spearritt, Survivor who lost his 14-year-old son, Adam

There was a policeman on the track. He must have been five or six feet away from me, and I was screaming and begging him to open the perimeter gate. You can scream your head off when you’re screaming for your son’s life. I was really screaming, but he didn't open the gate. I was right at the front and I'm screaming that Adam had fainted, I think at one stage I even said he was dying, but he didn't open the gate. I woke up in hospital on Sunday evening to find that Adam had died.

Les and Dolores Steele, Lost their 15-year-old son, Philip

The most infuriating thing is the way the lies about the disaster were reported worldwide, and although we do whatever we can in our own little way, we know it is practically impossible to undo the damage that has been done to the reputation of Liverpool and its people. What a sad reflection on those responsible that not one person has admitted to neglect and lack of care of our loved ones who suffered so much at their hands.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163835090415-0018.htm

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Moyes - Grief Transcends Divide (http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/9455600/Moyes:-Grief-transcends-club-divide)
"I do not think it only unites this city, it unites the whole country because everybody felt the disaster.

"It could have been any football club, it just turned out to be Liverpool. That situation then could have happened to anyone at that time.

"It is something that hopefully we will never see again."

Hillsborough Tributes From Around The World (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163629090415-0011.htm)
Liverpool supporters clubs from all corners of the globe have today paid their respects to the 96 Reds who never returned from Hillsborough twenty years ago.

What Hillsborough Means To Me (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163922090415-0019.htm)
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster we speak to Kenny Dalglish, Rafa Benitez, Gordon Brown, Gary Ablett, David Moyes and Brian Reade to find out what April 15, 1989, means to them.

What Hillsborough Means To Me (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163927090415-0015.htm)
Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard, Roy Evans, Rick Parry, Tony Barrett, Roger McGough and Stephen Done offer their thoughts as they reflect on British sport's worst sporting disaster.

Poems For The 96 (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163717090415-0017.htm)
With the 96 who lost their lives at Hillsborough uppermost in our thoughts today, we've compiled a list of reflective, thoughtful and emotional poems to mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster in Sheffield.

Cup Kings 1989 - The Full Story (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163627090415-0013.htm)
It was the most emotionally charged FA Cup final of all time, as Merseyside rivals Liverpool and Everton came together at Wembley just one month after the Hillsborough disaster.

Having lent Liverpool a shoulder to cry on in the dark days that followed the tragedy, it was only fitting that Howard Kendall's Everton should provide the opposition for only the second ever all-Merseyside FA Cup Final.

Captain Ronnie Whelan, striker John Aldridge and BBC Radio Merseyside commentator Graham Beecroft recently visited our LFC TV studios to reflect on a Cup run which will never be forgotten.

Ray Houghton Interview (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163825090415-0010.htm)
In an exclusive interview with LFC TV Ray Houghton recalls the highs and lows of the 1988-89 campaign and talks in detail about how the players tried to come to terms with the Hillsborough tragedy.

Dalglish Interview (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163919090415-0016.htm)
Twenty years on from the Hillsborough tragedy, we speak exclusively to then manager Kenny Dalglish about his memories of Liverpool Football Club's darkest day.

Lynne Fox - Hillsborough - The Unexpected Truth (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163835090415-0018.htm)
I was 16 years old when my 21-year-old brother Steve died at Hillsborough and I didn't know many facts about what had actually happened.

In 1996, the final year of my degree in photography, I got the chance to investigate, present and reveal the truth.

Letters From The Heart - Part 1 (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163817090414-2359.htm)
Letters From The Heart - Part 2 (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N164021090415-0006.htm)
Letters From The Heart - Part 3 (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N164005090415-0007.htm)
Earlier this year, Liverpoolfc.tv contacted some of those relatives and friends of the fans whose lives were tragically cut short to ask if they'd like to write a few words to their loved ones on the 20th anniversary of the disaster.

The response was truly humbling. Within days of our initial request, the letters started arriving. They came from all over Merseyside, all over England and all over the world. They came from wives, mums, dads, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, aunties, nieces, nephews and friends. Some were handwritten, others typed. Some took up pages; some were nothing more than a few lines. Some were poetic, some were angry but all of them appear here unedited, just as they arrived.

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Sorry I don't post all of the quotes for everything, but there is a lot of good stuff.

Be prepared to get teary-eyed.

Especially during the "Letters From The Heart".

YNWA!

:(

[AussieLFCfan]

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163964090414-2356.htm

RIP YNWA

[liverbird]

The Justice Bell
by Dave Kirby

A schoolboy holds a leather ball
in a photograph on a bedroom wall
the bed is made, the curtains drawn
as silence greets the break of dawn.

The dusk gives way to morning light
revealing shades of red and white
which hang from posters locked in time
of the Liverpool team of 89.

Upon a pale white quilted sheet
a football kit is folded neat
with a yellow scarf, trimmed with red
and some football boots beside the bed.

In hope, the room awakes each day
to see the boy who used to play
but once again it wakes alone
for this young boy's not coming home.

Outside, the springtime fills the air
the smell of life is everywhere
viola's bloom and tulips grow
while daffodils dance heel to toe.

These should have been such special times
for a boy who'd now be in his prime
but spring forever turned to grey
in theYorkshire sun, one April day.

The clock was locked on 3.06
as sun shone down upon the pitch
lighting up faces etched in pain
as death descended on Leppings Lane.

Between the bars an arm is raised
amidst a human tidal wave
a young hand yearning to be saved
grows weak inside this deathly cage.

A boy not barely in his teens
is lost amongst the dying screams
a body too frail to fight for breath
is drowned below a sea of death

His outstretched arm then disappears
to signal twenty years of tears
as 96 souls of those who fell
await the toll of the justice bell.

Ever since that disastrous day
a vision often comes my way
I reach and grab his outstretched arm
then pull him up away from harm.

We both embrace with tear-filled eyes
I then awake to realise
its the same old dream I have each week
as I quietly cry myself to sleep.

On April the 15th every year
when all is calm and skies are clear
beneath a glowing Yorkshire moon
a lone scots piper plays a tune.

The tune rings out the justice cause
then blows due west across the moors
it passes by the eternal flame
then engulfs a young boys picture frame.

His room is as it was that day
for twenty years its stayed that way
untouched and frozen forever in time
since that tragic day in 89.

And as it plays its haunting sound
tears are heard from miles around
they're tears from families of those who fell
awaiting the toll of the justice bell.

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

ESPN - Steve Nicol Remembers Hillsborough (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=636850&sec=england&root=england&cc=5901)
Twenty years ago, Steve Nicol took the field to play a game of football, unaware that what would happen around its perimeter that spring day would have a life-changing effect on him, his wife Eleanor and his family.

Moreover, what happened irrevocably changed Liverpool as a football club and as a city. The reminders will keep coming to Nicol, for he knows he owes it to those that lost their lives to ensure that they never leave.

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Ministers - Make Hillsborough Documents Available (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/apr/15/hillsborough-anniversary-ministers-documents-release)
Two government ministers will today call on the police, ambulance service and other public bodies responsible for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster to make available all documents they hold relating to the incident and its aftermath.

Andy Burnham, the minister for culture, media and sport, and Maria Eagle, the junior justice minister, will ask for full disclosure of all internal documentation as the families of the 96 people who died at the stadium mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster today.

Eagle has consistently accused South Yorkshire police of having engaged in "a conspiracy to cover up" its own culpability for the disaster by presenting a case, to Lord Justice Taylor's official inquiry and the subsequent inquest, that supporters' misbehaviour was to blame.

In his report, Taylor emphatically blamed police failures for the disaster, and criticised the force's refusal to accept responsibility. Earlier this week Meredydd Hughes, chief constable of South Yorkshire, accepted those criticisms, and promised to make available all documentation "not subject to legal privilege". Eagle yesterday welcomed Hughes's approach, but said it should go further and extend to the ambulance service, fire service, Sheffield city council, and all other relevant public authorities.

"Given that all legal actions against the police are concluded, I believe documents should be disclosed regardless of whether they were previously covered by legal privilege," she said.

Liverpool's Anfield ground will hold a remembrance service this afternoon attended by players and club staff past and present. There will also be a two-minute silence across the city.

But the day of remembrance will have a political undertone. The families remain angry about the decision of the coroner, Dr Stefan Popper, to restrict the inquest into Hillsborough to events up to 3.15pm on the day of the disaster. He ruled that all victims by then had received irreversible crushing injuries.

The families argue the 3.15pm "cut-off" closed down official investigation into the police and emergency services' response to the disaster, which several paramedics have since condemned as "chaotic." The 3.15pm cut-off meant some families never discovered what happened to their relatives up to the moment they died, or whether any might have been saved had the rescue operation been better organised.

"The 3.15 cut-off was decided by the coroner, and upheld on judicial review, in a legal context the government cannot interfere with," Eagle said. "But if the authorities open up all the documentation, that can give the families themselves a chance to find out as much as possible about what happened to their loved ones."

Burnham added: "The Hillsborough families have suffered the immediate pain of the tragedy and the anguish afterwards of 20 years without a sense of proper resolution or closure. For the families, there are still unanswered questions.

"There is a case for full disclosure by any public body of any document previously unpublished which would shed light on the disaster and its aftermath. It is vital that we have transparency, for the families to know they have been able to view all the information about the deaths of their loved ones."

[Red 11]

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll170/johnny_laserbeam/BigSoccer-Hillsboro20thAnniversary.gif

[Twenty26Six]

Defiant Liverpool Shine a Light in the Dark of Sorrow - The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/apr/14/liverpool-chelsea-champions-league-second-leg)

When Anfield swells for a memorial service to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster today, Liverpool's "mission impossible" against Chelsea in a Champions League quarter-final might look like trivial human theatre. But to trot out the old line about life and death and perspective ignores the reality that for many survivors and relatives of the 96 victims, Liverpool FC have kept a light shining in the dark of sorrow.

A safe guess is that the club and its exploits have felt more, not less, important since nearly 100 Liverpool supporters were crushed to death at Sheffield Wednesday's ground. So for many there was no emotional discrepancy between today's impending ritual on the Kop and the attempt to summon the spirit of Istanbul in London less than 24 hours earlier.

This was a crazy, switchback clash that reaffirmed Liverpool's unique talent for defiance. They scored four at Stamford Bridge and still went out of Europe. Chelsea have conceded seven in their past two home games, yet still advance to a glamour semi-final against Barcelona.

As Liverpool seized a two-goal lead inside 28 minutes, we were back in the remote moonscape of the Ataturk Olympic Stadium to the west of Turkey's capital, an unlikely setting for a magical transformation. Even as Chelsea recovered their poise to draw level with a goal from Didier Drogba – with a little help from the Liverpool goalkeeper, Pepe Reina – and an Alex free-kick, Liverpool held this tie in their teeth and shook it with late strikes from Lucas and Dirk Kuyt to help create an aggregate of 7-5 in Chelsea's favour.

Three-nil down to AC Milan at half-time in the 2005 Champions League final, Liverpool had scored three in six minutes to present a strong case for the phoenix replacing the Liver bird as their emblem. So fertile are those memories, still, that they were able to rebound from Chelsea's 3-1 victory in last week's first leg with genuine hope that a 100-1 Grand National winner would not be the only shock emanating from Merseyside this spring.

Had the numbingly prosaic Bolton Wanderers not scored three on this very turf when trailing 4-0 on Saturday – the same day Liverpool thumped four past Blackburn Rovers? Those dubious form lines were less luminous on paper than the knowledge that uproarious outcomes are always on the cards when Liverpool appear in European competition, as they did for the 300th time here.

But then the team-sheets dropped, with no sign of the only non-Manchester United player to make the Professional Footballers' Association shortlist for player of the year. Conspiracy theorists wondered whether Steven Gerrard's absence from pitch and bench suggested that Rafa Benítez, his manager, had already consigned this tie to history's dustbin in favour of a concentrated assault on the Premier League title. Nice theory. Then a game broke out to kill it. Chelsea emerged in a stupor as the visitors played the crisper, faster football and began to feed off signs that Guus Hiddink's side might be paralysed by the fear of surrendering such a commanding advantage.

Gerrard had aggravated his groin injury. Into the void left by the hero of Istanbul and countless other big Champions League nights stepped the unheralded Brazilian, Lucas, who earned rare praise from Benítez. Never doubt Brazilian ingenuity. Nineteen minutes in Lucas's compatriot, Aurelio jogged over from left-back to take a free-kick on Chelsea's right flank and curled it past the badly positioned Petr Cech, whose increasing fallibility must be worrying Chelsea's high command. Nine minutes later a penalty conceded by Branislav Ivanovic was converted by Alonso and Liverpool were turning football's world upside down again.

By now it was astonishing to recall the sigh that was let out when these two teams were drawn together for the fifth consecutive season. Was this football or an American dance marathon? As if sensing ennui in the land, the pair contrived to serve up a sparkling 3-1 Chelsea first-leg win and then last night's barn-burner, which produced six second-half goals. There will be no more grumbling if these two come out of the hat together again next year.

For Liverpool's fans, meanwhile, there is the comforting sense that their team's fighting spirit is now more sophisticated than it was in Istanbul, where they triumphed partly because Milan assumed they had already won. The best side assembled by Benítez in his Anfield years have rejoined the Premier League race through the exuberance and ambition of their play, rather than mere stubborn instinct, of which they also have plenty.

"We showed character and quality and we have to be very proud," Benítez said. "We were on top of them from the beginning, credit to all the players, especially Lucas in the middle. In the absence of Gerrard he worked very hard. When you lose in this way you have to be very proud, with your head up. We can win a lot of games with this mentality."

This is the narrow footballing sense that will be shared by the congregation on the Kop today as a two-minute silence commences at 3.06pm. Again, maybe "narrow" is the wrong word, because the game on Merseyside is unquestionably a force for life as well as a spectacle that is indelibly associated with injustice and loss.

After Hillsborough, one would guess, all Liverpool could do was go on beingtrue to themselves, to honour the departed. In this stunning game they achieved that end.

38 Games. Play until the whistle. YNWA.

[Twenty26Six]

Liverpool standing proud before day of raw emotion: The match had both sets of supporters looking to the future before thoughts turn back to a grim day from the game’s past. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article6095099.ece)


Tony Evans

Imagine a hangover. Imagine a 20-year hangover. You knew you were going to wake up in pain this morning, listless and wanting to hide from the world. But, today of all days, you have to face your darkest memories. Imagine what it is like to be a Liverpool supporter on the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough today.

What you needed last night was a game of football that lifted the spirits, a match that told you that this sport still has the ability to enchant, uplift and inspire.

Well, the Kopites who made the seemingly pointless journey to Stamford Bridge last night got the fillip they needed on the eve of the most emotional day in the club’s history. This afternoon they will troop to Anfield to mourn. Last night they shed no tears over a defeat. The reality is that they will talk about this magnificent match for years to come. Despite Chelsea advancing to the Champions League semi-finals, the Liverpool fans went home buoyant. “I was there,” they will say with pride. It will be a sentiment echoed by Stamford Bridge regulars.

Down by two goals after a masterful display by Chelsea at Anfield, Rafael Benítez’s team hit back with a vengeance in the first half. Guus Hiddink, who comprehensively outmanoeuvred the Spaniard six days ago, sent out the home side in a curiously negative mood. It suited Liverpool’s growing sense of self-belief. Frank Lampard, who exploited the space between Liverpool’s midfield and defence last week, sat deeper than in the away leg.

Michael Essien, who made Steven Gerrard’s life so miserable at Anfield, looked like he needed the Liverpool talisman to demonstrate his undoubted class. As it was, Essien got Lucas Leiva, who pushed up on the Ghana midfield player. Last week, Essien was brilliant, this week ordinary. The cynical will say he was a reflection of his opponent each time, but Lucas put in an impressive shift.

More pertinently, Essien did not pick up the man pulling the strings, Xabi Alonso, who sat 15 yards deeper. At 2-0 up, it seemed that Benítez’s talk of victory being this team’s destiny was justified. The Liverpool fans, proud in the corner with their Justice banners, waited for the weight of history to descend on Chelsea.

Instead, half-time arrived. If ever there was a day when Benítez could have done without a break, this was it.

Hiddink did not seem to send his side out with a new set of tactical nuances in the second period but a mistake by José Manuel Reina — disturbingly uncertain, like Petr Cech, his opposite number — gave Chelsea a foothold in the game and then the Liverpool defence, so stoic and composed in the first half, surrendered two free kicks in the danger area. The home side have too much quality in this department and Alex rammed home the second opportunity. The mood of Stamford Bridge changed.

Now Liverpool were forced to chase the game again — something they had avoided since Reina foolishly went up to the Kop for a corner in the final minute at Anfield. This released Lampard and, suddenly, Chelsea had a comeback on their hands that they will talk about for years.

Yet the home crowd were never given the opportunity to settle down and enjoy themselves. Benítez’s Liverpool do not fold without a battle. Throwing in the towel? Concentrating on the league? This is Liverpool and this is Europe. Need three goals in six minutes? Well, let’s see if we can oblige.

Lampard made sure that there was no Istanbul-style recovery. He has been magnificent this season and seriously underrated by fans and pundits alike.

Yet, for once, everyone went home happy. The Liverpool fans sang: “We’re going to win the league,” their Chelsea counterparts dreamt of Rome. There was little sign of the rancour that has grown around this fixture in recent years and, on this emotive night for Liverpool, there were no ugly chants about Hillsborough. When the PA played One Step Beyond by Madness at the end, it was the only time anyone overstepped the mark. It has not always been like this here recently.

Instead, an entire ground was singing about the future. Today Liverpool fans mourn, but not for a tie lost. Last night’s game showed why they keep coming back. Win, lose or draw. Especially a draw like this.

38 Games. Play until the whistle. YNWA.

[tigerdave]

I'm not a Liverpool fan and I've only followed football for a little more than five years. Even still, there are no words for how I feel today. The phrase keeps swirling in my head: They didn't die in vain, they didn't die in vain.

RIP the 96, you didn't die in vain.

[SyedZada]

Sad day for football, RIP.