Not necessarily. The area was larger, the number of fans was not the same and they weren't all constricted by huge security fences either.

they were not 'penned' in outside were they,.........and forgive me but I have no sympathy for Duckenfield whatsoever, it was him that made the very first statement that fans had 'forced the gate' a complete and utter lie

I'm over 6 foot and I can recall games before Hillsborough where, for most of the game, your feet were rarely in contact with the terrace. You were continuously being swept in the direction the crowd swayed

Someone appearing to have sympathy for Duckenfield is the final notice that this thread is full of lunatics. Perhaps if he'd studied the design of the ground, or the reports that were sent to him and he didn't bother to read, or perhaps done anything at all then this may never have happened.

i guess that means you'd have no issue if you got sent down for something even though 20% of the jury thought you were innocent.
never been a fan of these majority verdicts

You're Duckenfield?!

You might be interested in the link I posted earlier to a YT video.

So you are, despite a jury having spent two years listening to harrowing evidence, blaming the fans?

Just incase you Duckenfield sympathisers missed this:-

Duckenfield admitted he had not familiarised himself in any detail with the ground’s layout or capacities of its different sections. He did not know the seven turnstiles, through which 10,100 Liverpool supporters with standing tickets had to be funnelled to gain access to the Leppings Lane terrace, opened opposite a large tunnel leading straight to the central pens, three and four. He did not even know that the police were responsible for monitoring overcrowding, nor that the police had a tactic, named after a superintendent, John Freeman, of closing the tunnel when the central pens were full, and directing supporters to the sides. He admitted his focus before the match had been on dealing with misbehaviour, and he had not considered the need to protect people from overcrowding or crushing

Who has been sent down?

You'll be shot down because your opinion is wrong. The Leppings Lane wasn't populated beyond it's ticketed capacity on that day - this isn't a hunch or a guess, it's a fact. CCTV footage was painstakingly studied by the Health And Safety Executive and the figures counted of those who passed through the turnstiles and also those who passed through the gates when they were opened.

https://thegreatcritique.wordpress.c...s-how-we-know/

Careful, it seems wild opinion based on nothing is more popular on here than facts.

nobody which wasnt the point. when up to 20% of the jury disagrees with the overall decision its not exactly a watertight verdict. even after 2 years of considering the evidence 2 people still couldnt be convinced to go along with the majority

There was a crush outside which is why the police opened gate C. Which the police later said was broken down by fans. Incredible that even after twenty seven years there is still so much ignorance shown about what happened.

Fair enough. Tell me more about the drunk and ticketless fans.

If it was on his conscience he should have admitted his lie sooner, and saved the families a lot of heartache.

I blame the Police, I blame the Club and I express concern that the Jury have possibly overlooked the fact that supporters eager to get onto the terrace have unknowingly caused a crush.

ok, they are idiots with not a care for themselves, eachother or for their club

Did any Forest fans give evidence? my friends were there and saw with their own eyes that the pubs and streets around the ground were packed with Liverpool fans. When the game started they all rushed foreward, what chance did the Police stand if they didn't open the gates.? The ones who died were innocent and nobody denies this, it was the crush behind which killed them. Were all the Liverpool fans innocent?

And here we have the issue summed up after all the thousands of words posted on this thread all ready.

Duckenfield got away with it for nearly 30 years, and he, with his other senior officers did everything for 25 years to push the blame on to anyone but the authorities.mthe wall of silence or more truthfully wall of lies, blamed the fans to deflect and quash the truth, the actions and decisions of South Yorkshire police was responsible for the death of 96 football fans. They did everything and anything to strengthen the lies that the fans were to blame.

So for Duckenfield to apologise is sickening, with him suffering no consequences for his actions for 25 years. 25 years that 96 people who died because of his ineptitude never had. And worsened by his pathetic lies to cover his own backside. He should be vilified for ever.

So blaming the fans. The fans that the jury said, after having seen all the evidence, were not to blame. The question didn't ask if the dead fans had any blame attached, but all the fans. The fans that the police herded down the tunnel towards the pen. The fans that didn't realise what horror was going to unfold. You can't blame people doing what they are directed to do by those who should be there to keep them safe.
And that is what you are doing.

what so unusual about that.......or would that fit into the 'drunken fans' theory..............so not only now do we have drunken fans and ticketless fans we also have late arriving fans.............funny that isn't this what the sun reported

Yes there was a culture where we took this for granted on the terraces, and that we would be treated like utter crap getting into the ground - not just hooligans, but anyone not in the posh bit. The only 'safety measure' I ever took was to try to stand the right side of the metal bar barriers on the terraces so that when the crowd surged I wouldn't go flying and be pinned on one.
It's strange how you simply accept something so dodgy as the norm when everyone else is doing it.

Personally, I'm chuffed to little mint balls about the verdict and if it does open the door to some degree of compensation then I shan't grudge them a single penny because I wouldn't have wanted their lives for the last almost 3 decades for all the tea in China.

No, it's eye witness account.