Celebration of the 96: LFC Local Legends v LFC International Legends, 21 April 2014

Written by Kop-post and Jan Thomson

Brendan Rodgers reminded us recently that class is synonymous with Liverpool Football Club. He said in talking about winning in a sporting manner, “... they are the values of this club. It’s a club that has won many trophies in the past but had the humility and the class. One word I always had in my mind when I joined Liverpool is ‘class.’ So that is important to me - that those values are restored.”

The 21^st April 2014, 25 years after the Hillsborough disaster Liverpool supporters old and new came together as one to support and pay homage to the 96 souls, also supporters of Liverpool Football Club in the only we knew how.  Through a football match.

We came together to remember, but also in celebration of their lives to share the moment with players past and present.  Speaking personally it was a day that left an indelible mark on me and presented reminders the effects tragedy can have on survivors.

The Kop doing it as only The Kop can

Pre-match line-ups

The relaxed atmosphere was I am sure a cathartic experience with fans seeing the current Premiership leaders led by manager Brendan Rodgers and Captain Steven Gerrard on hand to lend support.  The game was a chance to see heroes of yesteryear with the likes of Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Steve MacManaman, John Barnes and Ian Rush among those turning out for LFC local legends and Sander Westerveld, Didi Hamann, Sami Hyppia, Jan Molby and crowd favourite Luis Garcia appearing for the LFC International legends.

Old father time may have reduced the players endurance and speed, but there was enough skills on show to make us reminisce of halcyon days past.   

There was Steve MacManaman weaving his magical runs with the galloping Rob Jones with less of the raking stride on the overlap.  The mesmeric Jari Litmanen who fluttered so briefly at Anfield, but left an abundance of memories.  The little Finnish master still revived memories with his superb close control and balance.

MacManaman rolls back the years

Michael Owen, with an athletic leap and header against the bar and Robbie Fowler with his deft football reminded us how injury robbed us of their peak years, but even so they live on in the memory with highlights a plenty in their respective Anfield careers.  There was the joy of seeing Luis Garcia and singing “"Luis García, he drinks Sangria/he came from Barça to bring us joy! He's five-foot seven, he's football heaven, so please don't take our Luis away!"

We saw history.  Champions League winners Alan Kennedy, Ronnie Whelan and Ian Rush.  Local favourites John Aldridge, David Thompson and a plethora of others such as Abel Xavier and Jamie Redknapp who produced an unbelievable Rabona pass from the centre to switch the play out wide.

Fowler and Owen connect up

The local legends were managed by King Kenny, assisted by Roy Evans (with Alan Hansen sitting alongside) and the Internationals by Gerard Houllier, assisted by Phil Thompson and coach Sammy Lee.

That the game ended 2-2 was incidental, it was a magical and uplifting day for a full-house where one felt the positive energy around the stadium and it was an afternoon when for once an occasion involving the remembrance of Hillsborough was not a solemn occasion, but a joyous tribute.  I looked around me and I could see people pay due respect at the appropriate times, but recognising that the game was to honour our fallen supporters with the imminent ajournment of the Hillsborough inquest.  YNWA.

At the end of the game, my friend Jan Thomson and I went to the monument to pay our respects to the 96.  It was an all too brief stay, as so many had the same idea, but we got there.

If I thought my day of thinking about Hillsborough was about to end as my thoughts turned to trying to grab some sleep on the way back to London after seemingly spending most of my Easter weekend on the train to Norwich and then to Liverpool, it was never going to happen.

Dietmar Hamann

Players gather at the end of the game

At the station I called David (dedlfc) and told him about the day as an experience and how brilliant it had been from Margaret Aspinall's end of match summary to the fact that I’d met Howard Gayle and Jamie Redknapp. 

 

On the train back to London I sat down to read my celebration day programme which the couple sharing the table seats with me noticed and that was the start of 3 hour conversation back to London with Stuart and his partner Susan.

They are a lovely couple who emanate warmth and friendliness.  We spoke of what a great occasion it had been and I mentioned how I couldn’t join in the shouts around the ground of “We are going to the League.”  Stuart said, he believed that for many it was a release and therapeutic.  Stuart and Susan had come over from Australia, I’d assumed for a holiday and to see family (Stuart is a Scouser) as they explained they belonged to the LFC Supporters Club Branch in Melbourne.

Stuart explained that he had come over for the inquest and again I assumed wrongly that he came over to offer his support as a fan of the club.   Susan then enlightened me saying “Stuart was in the Lepping’s Lane End.”   Stuart told me that he’d collected a lot of information after Hillsborough, but he became disillusioned with the lack of progress and disposed of it before emigrating to live in Australia in 1992.

The Anfield Memorial

When Stuart spoke of that day 25 years ago, Susan was visibly emotional and while I had seen programmes of families on Liverpool FC TV reliving their nightmares through their testimonies, on the train back to London I heard from a survivor of how important it was to get justice.  He spoke of the mental anguish it caused in other survivors and Susan explained that Stuart was lucky in a way, because unlike most men he could talk out his emotions which at least could make things relatively bearable.  Whereas, there were others who are locked into this tragedy and are emotionally scarred and one feels only justice will give them an assemblance of freedom and start to begin the healing process.

Talking to Stuart and Susan it’s easy to see that Susan lives Hillsborough just as much as Stuart if not more so and it’s easy not to recognise the trauma that survivors go through as understandably we hear less of their struggles and what they have gone through having watched fellow supporters die in front of them and in Stuart's case come close to death himself, then being dismissed as being at fault by the authorities and having their humanity called into question must have been difficult to live with.

Twenty-five years on Stuart travelled from Melbourne to be part of the fight for justice for the 96 and for the survivors of Hillsborough.    By the time the inquest resumes Stuart and Susan will be back in Australia, Stuart having at least seen the opening testimonies given by the families and the survivors and himself painting a picture of just what it was like to be in the Leppings Lane End in his interview with ITN.

It was a privilege to meet Stuart and Susan because until you talk to someone like Stuart and listen to his experience it really brings home the reality of Hillsborough when one meets a survivor.  Someone that has seen with their own eyes something terrible unfolding, which makes it all the more poignant.  They spoke with dignity and refuse to be browbeaten by the contempt they and others were treated with and that’s why we as Liverpool supporters have so much respect for Margaret Aspinall and the families of the 96 and the survivors who have to live on and through the trauma.  YNWA

Programme from the Memorial Service at Anfield

 

Jen and friend after the Carling Cup Final 2012

 

Jen after the Carling Cup in 2012