I've said it before but my best mate died on Leppings Lane that day. I remember coming out of Villa Park not then knowing what had happened, all we knew was that the Liverpool Forest game had been stopped because of "crowd trouble".
When we got back to our car, we (there were four of us) were elated that we'd won our semi-final. We switched on the radio and heard the reports at the time that said upto 30 had died. We drove back from Villa Park and never said a word to each other, just listening to the horror unfolding on the radio. By the time we got home the death toll was rising.
At around 11pm that night, my mates brother knocked on the door to tell us that his brother wouldn't be coming home........ I can still remember every moment of that awful night.
On the Sunday we walked over to Anfield which had now opened its' gates to the public. There were thousands of scarves already tied to the barriers on the Kop and the floral tributes were just about fillling the penalty area in front of the Kop. (Eventually of course they passed well over the half-way line.)
10 days later, we had my mates funeral, and amongst others Kenny Daglish and Alan Hansen attended. The grief was overwhelming, beyond words - my mate's parents wept over the coffin, and eventually Daglish himself walked over to them and led them back to their seats.
RIP Phillip
