Re: Ian Hambridge tributes 40 years after death of 'forgotten victim' of football hooliganism

bluearmyfaction

The reports at the time suggested he was sheltering behind the wall because of missiles being thrown, but I don't get how he could have got there, unless he climbed over. He had got separated from his mate in the crush.

I’ve wondered about this before. Looking at the photos (I won’t link them but there were loads 10 years ago on the Mail website that are still up), it looked like the wall was at the end/side of the Tilton, with quite broad steep steps leading down square onto it from a bank. The stairs then turned and narrowed to be parallel to the wall (facing towards the Main Stand) until reaching the car park level and a little exit. So it might have seemed sensible to get out that way if you could and maybe wait behind the wall for your mates to come out.

Presumably what happened was the weight of people trying to get out, especially as they were being charged by the police, couldn’t get around the corner to the narrow stairs and out fast enough and they crushed against the wall.

Hence my comment earlier up the thread about, allowing for the difficult situation, how fans behaved and the different times, it being poor for the police not to realise that something awful could happen by forcing people into a space too small for them.