Liverpool FC legends to play in Hillsborough disaster 20th anniversary match

Apr 16 2008 by Richard Down, Liverpool Daily Post

The Liverpool squad amongst the fans at the 19th Hillsborough Memorial service at Anfield, Liverpool. Picture: Peter Byrne/PA Wire _320

LIVERPOOL legends Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush are among the stars who will play a benefit match against Celtic’s side of 1989 on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

Phil Hammond, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, used yesterday’s annual memorial service held in The Kop at Anfield to announce the poignant charity tie.

He said: “The money raised will be split between HFSG and the Marina Dalglish Cancer Unit Appeal and will be played on, or about, April 19 next year.”

It was Celtic who Liverpool played in the first match after the Sheffield disaster on April 30, 1989.

Mr Hammond, whose 14-year-old son Philip died in the tragedy, said the fixture would feature as many of the 1989 first team players of both clubs as possible.

As 6,000 Liverpool fans, joined by some Everton supporters, gath-ered to pay their respects with the families of the lost 96, Mr Hammond warned that with major Champions League fixtures looming, lessons still had to be learned from the disaster.

He said: “We look at police at European games and while Liverpool has had fair treatment so far, other fans have been treated badly, especially in Italy. It’s a terrifying reminder of how supporters were treated in the 1980s as criminals just for attending games.

“Have no lessons been learned? Why does UEFA let this happen?

“We all know what the paranoia led to in 1989. They were herded into pens like animals and that was disastrous.”

Former Liverpool players Brian Hall and Gary Ablett read passag-es from The Bible on the 19th anniversary of the disaster.

After a difficult week chief executive Rick Parry joined manager Rafa Benitez and the full first team squad to pay their respects as a blanket of silence fell on the stadium for 60 seconds.

Father Francis Ferns, of All Saints Church, Anfield, admitted he had been nervous about lead-ing out in the service. He read out the names of each of the 96 as the Choir of St Anne Stanley sang.

He told the Hillsborough families: “But why should I worry compared to the years of loss and suffering you have had since that terrible day in 1989.”

Bob and Maureen Salmon, of Fazakerley, later spoke of their memories of that fateful day.

Speaking after emotional scenes in The Kop, Mr Salmon said: “I was at the game with my sons and felt I had to be here today. I’ve had friends who stopped going to the games but we still come. We lost one of the lads on our coach. We were the lucky ones to come out of it but my lads were in there and I thought they were in the thick of it. I lost my nerve and went onto the pitch to look for them but they’d got off and were OK.”

Another Anfield regular Mike Smith, from Ormskirk, attended the service with his sons Callum, 9, and James, 6. He said: “They’re strong Liverpool supporters and that’s gone through the family. They’re always asking me what happened, it’s part of Liverpool history now.”

richarddown@dailypost.co.uk