Leppings Lane. Again

There is/was a thread about this on RTG this morning. Unfortunately some on there have let their dislike of NUFC get the better of them, and frankly it was embarrassing with some pretty sick comments.

Credit to one fella who was berating anyone who was having a dig at the fans and to their mods who have locked it.

On the theme of crushes. Liverpool in the FA Cup, the one where Faiclough came on to score. We were in the Anfield RD end, 4 of us with linked arms. We must have unwittingly travelled 50 or 60 yards that afternoon.
Oh, and I received a right good kicking when we left the stadium.
 
billsykes said:
There is/was a thread about this on RTG this morning. Unfortunately some on there have let their dislike of NUFC get the better of them, and frankly it was embarrassing with some pretty sick comments.

Credit to one fella who was berating anyone who was having a dig at the fans and to their mods who have locked it.

On the theme of crushes. Liverpool in the FA Cup, the one where Faiclough came on to score. We were in the Anfield RD end, 4 of us with linked arms. We must have unwittingly travelled 50 or 60 yards that afternoon.
Oh, and I received a right good kicking when we left the stadium.
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I almost lost a platform shoe in one of the surges!
Pay on the gate and no proper segregation.
 
I was always surprised more wasn’t done to the ground itself

as you say knock it down change it’s name etc.

I never realised this either.


2012 Hillsborough Independent Panel EnquiryEdit​

It emerged from the Hillsborough Independent Panel enquiry in September 2012 that Richards, who was the Chairman of Sheffield Wednesday from March 1990 to February 2000, had refused to put up a memorial at Hillsborough, on legal advice, for the 96 Liverpool supporters that died on 15 April 1989, in the disaster in Hillsborough. (David Conn at The Guardian)
 
Jedi boro said:
I was always surprised more wasn’t done to the ground itself

as you say knock it down change it’s name etc.

I never realised this either.


2012 Hillsborough Independent Panel EnquiryEdit​

It emerged from the Hillsborough Independent Panel enquiry in September 2012 that Richards, who was the Chairman of Sheffield Wednesday from March 1990 to February 2000, had refused to put up a memorial at Hillsborough, on legal advice, for the 96 Liverpool supporters that died on 15 April 1989, in the disaster in Hillsborough. (David Conn at The Guardian)
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I knew it took a long time for the memorial but had not realised why.
Awful.
There is a very respectful memorial now behind the main stand next to Hillsborough park.
 
Yes the Holgate and the lanes getting in could be a nightmare, especially when the coppers wouldn’t open the gates to let you in.

The worst I’ve been at was a european game at Sparta Prague in the mid nineties. The whole town seemed to be absolutely smashed, pushing the crowd forward in on the gates.
 
Easy to say knock it down and rebuild it, where have they got the money no rich sugar daddy chairman. Close the bottom tier people still would complain about the upper tier been old and cramped stairwells. Close it all together people would complain no tickets. Some one said they have money to buy players imagine another clubs fans saying that to boro fans stop signing and build a stand wouldn't have it. Really feel sorry for clubs like Wednesday if they hadn't fallen from grace might have had money to be modernised - when where they last in the premiership? (22 years ago). We are lucky let's not bash the clubs that are not. Reckon sheffield City Council will Close it - already sheff utd can't sell tickets on the kop for match days for the foreseeable future only season ticket holders allowed- due to persistent standing and people not sitting in correct seats and trouble with stewards .
 
The worst for me was at the stadium in graz and that gate being opened as there was just nowhere to go in the crush.
 
I’d like to say as a preface to my comment that what happened in 1989 at Hillsborough was an avoidable disaster created by the lax attitudes of the footballing authorities towards crowd safety and the complete denigration and disgust that the ruling classes had for working people in this country, in particular footballing fans. The coverup which ensued was deeply disgusting and the work done by the Hillsborough Justice Campaign was invaluable in ensuring justice for those 97 people who didn’t come home from a football match, and whose stories were never told.

But I will speak here as someone who is an adopted Sheffielder and went to that match on Saturday, primarily in the later realised hope that Wednesday would knock a couple against a second string Saudi barcodes XI. What I saw wasn’t in my view a result of the current structure of the Leppings Lane stand, which was redeveloped for Euro 96. The only thing which I believe is distasteful about the structure of that stand is that the powers that be at Sheffield Wednesday chose not to raze it following the Taylor Report, but the redevelopment of Hillsborough even went so far as to make those painful reminders safer. The bottom tunnel which for so many conjures memories of the lies told by SYP has been widened and lowered, so that it is not the same claustrophobic death trap it was until the early 90s. Fencing has been removed and there are in my view more than suitable evacuation points around the stands to allow for safety to be a priority. Outside the ground is a system by which proper stewarding and policing would guarantee that people arrived in the stands in an orderly fashion and safely.

As someone who was at that game, Newcastle fans indisputably largely arrived in the direct run up to and after kickoff. The lower tier was, I would say, about 50-55% full at 5:50pm, ten minutes before kick off. There were large areas of empty seating in the upper tier until even minutes following kickoff. I can chance that a great deal of those complaints were down to late entry into the ground, meaning that in a ground as old as Hillsborough without the luxuries of being a largely out of town centre modern venue, there were going to be crowds which needed to be managed well. At a game such as the Steel City derby, South Yorkshire Police and Sheffield Wednesday FC would ensure sufficient stewarding and policing to ensure that this was managed appropriately.

Instead, it was treated like a typical FA Cup third round tie, we all know attendances drop in January and the FA Cup is an unfortunate afterthought to many fans in the modern era, particularly in the world we live in with cost of living crises to contend with. Those in charge of manning this game must have clearly failed to realise the situation in hand, L1 side against a side gunning for the top four with lots of money and interest around them, and as such, policing and stewarding was genuinely minimal. On my way around the ground from the tram stop on Leppings Lane to the ticket office off Penistone Road at roughly 5:25pm, I must have passed two or three police officers, and once in the ground, I saw minimal on-site stewarding, even in a busy away end where typically you could notice them.

My point here is that I do not believe that the Leppings Lane stand is ripe for condemnation for anything other than poor taste in the wake of a tragedy three decades ago, and Sheffield Wednesday as a club who have undergone two administrations and a recent transfer embargo since their relegation from the top flight in 2000 quite simply do not have the outlay to provide that. The most likely outcome I feel is that SYP will limit ticketing in the Leppings Lane whilst doing little to address what I think was the primary issue in this circumstance - an inappropriate level of staffing from police or stewards both in and outside the ground. Whether this is because numbers of available police and stewards are falling, or is through unintentional practice, I’m not certain. But I really wish that we would not jump to crass and knew-jerk provocations that this incident is a precursor to a tragedy simply because it is the same place where a tragedy occurred once before. The same I hope would not be said if someone was to visit Ibrox, Valley Parade, the Heysel Stadium or any ground which befell tragedy and underwent significant redevelopment to avoid repeating said tragedy. This is a failure we see at away grounds up and down the country and it needs to be dealt with by ensuring the appropriate resources are provided for the appropriate match day context.
 
This could have been a disaster 😕

'Sheffield Wednesday respond to Hillsborough overcrowding reports'

www.skysports.com

Sheffield Wednesday respond to Hillsborough overcrowding reports: 'Stewarding exceeded requirements and allocation of tickets complied'

Sheffield Wednesday have responded to reports of overcrowding at Hillsborough for Saturdays FA Cup third-round clash with Newcastle; The governments sports stadium safety regulator announced a review with Sheffield Wednesday and local authorities
www.skysports.com www.skysports.com
 
fmttmadmin said:
The last time we were at Hillsborough we were channelled from the turnstiles up steps within a passage to our seats. It was very different to the 80s. But then again we have never filled the entire end.
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We must have come close? Boxing Day 1999 and the match where the lad spat at Leadbitter spring to mind.
 
It gave me chills seeing the photograph of the Newcastle fans crammed in like that.

It's shocking that the Leppings Lane end wasn't pulled down and rebuilt after what happened in 89.
 
parmoboy said:
It gave me chills seeing the photograph of the Newcastle fans crammed in like that.

It's shocking that the Leppings Lane end wasn't pulled down and rebuilt after what happened in 89.
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I've never been to Hillsborough but the Mrs has (Coca-Cola cup final replay '97). On seeing those scenes she asked me if anything had changed other than putting seats in. It doesn't look like it does it?
 
BoroFur said:
I've never been to Hillsborough but the Mrs has (Coca-Cola cup final replay '97). On seeing those scenes she asked me if anything had changed other than putting seats in. It doesn't look like it does it?
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It was bad safety planning and horrendously bad crowd management which led to the disaster, and seems not a lot has changed in that respect either. Stewards were telling Newcastle fans to sit wherever they wanted.
 
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