[theo_luddite]

Having read through the Guardian article, it seems it wasn't just fans at the front that were already in the pens that got crushed, which is pretty much all that I had seen reported before. Some were still outside when the gates were opened and they rushed in to what became their own death trap too.

Anyone that had been to a match at Hillsborough before that attracted a big crowd and tried to get in those middle pens minutes before the kick-off would have known that they would likely be full by then and would probably have gone to one side or the other if they didn't let the excitement of the moment get to them. There still isn't a standing terrace anywhere, football or both codes of rugby, behind the goals that fills up ends first and middle last and for the police to be ignorant of it is unforgivable.

Duckinfield, who eventually admitted he'd never even been to the ground before let alone that end, was completely ignorant of the issue and didn't order the closing off of the middle pens when he ordered the outside gate to be opened. He, and SYP, have spent the last 27 years blaming the fans for a problem that he (and his gaffer to some large extent for changing the officer in charge ) ultimately caused. I can see him and a few other lying toads having a few sleepless nights at one of Her Majesty's Full Board establishments in the not too distant future. SYP continued to treat football supporters as hooligans first and human beings second, in my experience, for many, many years after this incident and not just in Sheffield.