As close to 30,000 gathered at Liverpool's Anfield ground, the main civic event on this side of the Pennines involved Lord Mayor Coun Jane Bird, politicians, South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Med Hughes and representatives of the fire and ambulance services.

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They gathered for a short service in the Hillsborough Walled Garden before marching quietly to the small marble memorial stone at the junction of Middlewood Road and Wadsley Lane, to lay flowers alongside bouquets already placed by Liverpool fans.

Mr Hughes saluted the memorial, paid for by surrounding businesses and the first to be erected after the disaster.

At the football ground a few hundred yards away, open for supporters to pay their respects yesterday, Liverpool fans left tributes to the dead.
Some were then heading over the Pennines to attend commemorative events at Anfield at 3.06pm – the time the match was abandoned 20 years ago as the scale of the disaster became clear.

Among them was Michael Murphy, from Formby, Liverpool, who was 26 at the time of the disaster and counts himself lucky to survive.

Now 46, he drove to Hillsborough with two of his three children – Hannah, 15, and Daniel, 10 – to lay a bouquet of tulips at the Leppings Lane end before returning home to go to Anfield.

Recalling the tragic day, he said: "It only seems like yesterday, coming here with all the excitement ahead of a big game. My wife Julie had dropped me off at Lime Street station in Liverpool saying 'Have a nice day'. It was just one of many big matches – it was only the year before we'd been there for another FA Cup semi-final.

"Now I have the memories, the flashbacks. I remember the incredible noise, the smell of the grass as I was on the pitch helping people." He reckons his "split second" decision to head to the back of the stand after walking through the tunnel when he first entered the stadium saved his life.

"I thought if I went to the front and we scored, it would be murder with all the amount of people. Where I was stood I was struggling to breathe but I helped lift people up on to the tier of the stand above.
"I was dazed and struggling for breath. Then I remember someone's hand on the bottom of my foot pushing me upwards. I couldn't reach but then another hand came down and pulled me up."

Having been trained as a first aider while working for his local council, Michael decided to remain in the ground as the crush subsided, to offer help. "There were still people stood against the fence at the front, unconscious. I helped give resuscitation to the victims.

"I went to the gate into the next pen, to get to the pitch to help out there, but a police sergeant was standing there and initially wouldn't let me through until I told him I was a first aider. I couldn't believe it. It was surreal. Even then there was still a line of police across the pitch."

Twenty years on, Michael believes there still "hasn't been proper closure" for the families of the 96 who died. Fellow fans who came to pay their respects also remain raw about what happened.

Reds' supporters laid flowers both inside the Leppings Lane end and at the turnstiles, with message ranging from simply '96' to 'In our Prayers'. More tributes were left at the memorial outside the main entrance.

Dominic Gibbs, 37, his son Conor, 13, Andy Cornish, 40, and Dominic Gibbs, 30, of the Doncaster branch of the Liverpool Supporters' Club, laid bouquets inside and outside the ground before driving to Anfield to leave more flowers there. None of the men had been able to attend the match in 1989 but were in Sheffield on behalf of fellow fans.

Dominic said: "I was supposed to have been there. We want to remember the 96 with dignity. Their families still haven't seen justice but one day they will. I think the police went a long way this week by actually saying they made a mistake."

Fellow Liverpool fans Carol, Andy and Bruce Reeve and Jim O'Leary had driven up from King's Lynn in Norfolk and paused at Hillsborough on their way to Anfield. And Steven Bailey, who hails from the terrace streets surrounding Anfield but is now an events management student at Sheffield Hallam University, also came to Hillsborough to place flowers, dressed in a Liverpool tracksuit.

The 21-year-old, too young to remember the disaster, said: "I feel there should be something done about what happened – although the victims should now be left to rest in peace."

Sheffield football supporters also paid tribute. On a railing outside the Leppings Lane turnstiles and at the memorial in the walled garden, Owls scarves had been left with Liverpool ones. And a Blades shirt had been left at the memorial at the ground.

Liverpool fans were represented at the event by retired Sheffield school headteacher Pat Smith, 72, originally from Bootle. She accompanied the council and emergency services delegations wearing a red suit and her Liverpool scarf. Pat's husband Bob, partner in Fletcher Smith insurers on Middlewood Road, was among businessmen who raised money for the memorial.

Pat, who now lives in Nether Green and was head at Standhouse nursery and infant school, Manor, in 1989, said: "I wanted to be there on the day but it was impossible to get a ticket so I was doing schoolwork at home. Over the years, because of my association with the football club, I felt it important we should look after the memorial and keep up maintenance of the grass triangle where it stands.

"Bob used to do it himself when we were younger. We used to plant red and white geraniums at this time of year because we knew relatives of those who died would come to lay flowers."

Lord Mayor's Chaplain, Rev Anesia Cook, said during the remembrance service: "They were 96 people who came to Sheffield to enjoy themselves. They left their footprints in the hearts of those who loved them."

Away from Hillsborough, Sheffield Town Hall flag was at half mast and, at 3.06pm, the city centre siren sounded to begin a two-minute silence, observed in the streets, offices and shops. At Meadowhall the malls and 280 shops fell silent.

Sheffield Council leader Coun Paul Scriven, at the civic ceremony with senior councillors from all parties plus MPs Clive Betts – at Hillsborough on the day of the disaster – and Richard Caborn, said: "We remember those who died, their loved ones and ordinary Sheffielders living around the ground who opened their doors to people in their hour of need."


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