FA Cup 72nd anniversary of a forgotten post war matchday tragedy

Interesting read and he's right it wouldn't take a lot to do a minute's silence in the Cup game.
 
Very interesting read, and a tragedy that, although I was aware of it, I suspect many others weren't.

What I've often thought over the years, as someone who first attended games as a kid in the 1960s, when large terraces, no segregation, matches mostly pay on the day, and little or no control over how many people were actually in each area of the grounds, was that the very attraction of football matches as an "event" in those days was the danger that we put ourselves in by being on those lawless terraces packed in like sardines.

The crowd surges were incredible, and as the writer says, you could end up a long way from where you started from and nowhere near the people you were stood next to a few seconds earlier. But we never really knew the possible danger we were in and it was all an adventure. It was one of the things that got me hooked on football as a kid.

Clearly we can't go back to those days, but when I'm sat in my seat in the North Stand, on a cold damp day, with my knees feeling frozen, and the stadium feeling like a morgue, I miss those days, and am glad I lived through them, and feel sorry for anyone who never got the chance to experience them.
 
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