Luke Traynor sees record numbers flock to the poignant 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy

ALMOST 30,000 people flocked to Anfield to make it the best-attended Hillsborough memorial service ever seen. In a day of high emotion, fans packed all sides of Liverpool’s famous ground to honour the 96 supporters who lost their lives in Sheffield 20 years ago.

The numbers who flooded into Anfield were staggering, beating all estimations and dwarfing the previous best memorial service attendance of 10,000.

Twenty minutes before the service began, representatives from Celtic FC lay a huge You’ll Never Walk Alone green banner on the field to tumultuous applause.

It was followed by equally large ovations for the Hillsborough families who took their seats on The Kop, and all the Liverpool FC players and staff who had the previous night heroically lost out to Chelsea in the Champions League quarter-final second leg.

Opening the service, the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, told the crowd the Queen had sent a message that her thoughts and prayers were with them. The Bishop said the tragedy “broke the heart but not the spirit” of the community.

At around 3pm, each of the 96 names were read out, accompanied by a peal of a church bell, as a candle was lit in memory of each victim.

There followed an impeccably-observed two minutes silence, at 3.06pm, the time the match was abandoned – and then the bells of the city’s cathedrals, churches and civic buildings could be heard ringing across the city.

A host of former players and well-known city figures attended the service including John Barnes, Kenny Dalglish, Everton manager David Moyes, Alan Kennedy, Gerry Byrne, David Fairclough and Ron Yeats.

Trevor Hicks, president of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, told the huge audience: “We’ve never seen a turn-out like this before.

“If ever the Government, past or present, need proof of the need for justice, just look around the stadium today.

“We have people here from Merseyside, the rest of the UK, Sweden and messages of support from Greece, South Africa and a great big tapestry was delivered yesterday from Australia.

“We are all here today to remember the 96 men, women and children who did not come home from a game of football on a beautiful, sunny day in Sheffield.

“They were 96 real people, our kin, our flesh and blood, real people who did not come home from a football game.

“I would like to publicly salute you for the way we have borne that loss, often in the glare of hostile publicity, but here we are 20 years on, still together.

“Despite all the odds, we are still determined, still with dignity to ensure that truth will defeat the lies .”