Saturday 15th April 1989 started in a normal way for the match going football fan back then, little did we all know that the game of football would change for ever before the day was over.

31 years after the event there seems to be little sympathy for Liverpool supporters for anything let alone the disaster at Hillsborough, but that was not the case back in 1989.

I remember going up to see a vital relegation battle with West Ham United on this day, myself, TUI co founder Clive Foley went up in the back of a little van rather than by train that day.

Things were not any different in the pre match, a couple of drinks in a pub near Upton Park and then to the game, Saints had pulled a little clear of the relegation zone but the Hammers were deep in it and the general feeling was if we lost we were in trouble but if the Hammers lost they would be cast adrift at the bottom

Therefore we were expecting a toxic atmosphere and wondering how we would get out of the place if we beat them.

Saying that it wasn't a big crowd, a couple of thousand Saints fans in a total of 14,766, it seemed that West Ham fans had given up on their team.

We scored on 33secs when Rod Wallace ran through from a Glenn Cockerill pass unchallenged, it was a good start but the home side equalised 10 mins from the break from the penalty spot.

Half time was the usual milling around waiting fro the scores from other grounds with two FA Cup semi finals being played that day, some people had little transitor radios back then and they started to talk about the news coming through from Hillsborough, firstly it was about how the game was delayed and then that there had been injuries, but no talk of deaths at least not as the second half commenced.

Paul Rideout scored on 51 minutes to make it 2-1 and we now had the game under control and there would be no further scoring.

But the atmosphere had changed in the crowd, with every minute the news seemed to get worse, at first people thought that it was just over exaggeration on the part of the radio set owner, but soon it was spreading round the ground like wildfire, as it did back then, there were always people with transistor radios relaying scores especially at the end of the season, but now it wasn't the number of goals being spoken of but the number of dead.

The final minutes of the game came and it was clear that by now there wasn't a person n the ground that wasn't aware of the fact that people had died at Hillsborough, it was just unclear of the actual circumstances apart from it was people being crushed.

No one was saying anything about the Scousers getting a bit of karma for they events at Heysel everyone was just numb.

As we walked back to the car I remarked that I would never have predicted that we could walk so openly down the road at Upton Park after a win like this without being in fear of our safety, a couple of West Ham fans may have nodded and smiled, but no one and i mean no one was looking for trouble, everyone was just numb.

As the evening and the weekend went on I would like to say things became clearer, but they didn't, there was so many lies in the press, but those who went to the game knew them to be just that, we knew that no football fan would urinate on his own dying supporters, that is what kept the country behind Liverpool fans and not blaming them, the lies planted in the media by the Police were just too bizarre to be true.

Yes Liverpool had a very violent bunch of fans, but they were not that low, if only because no one was that low.

Everton were solidly behind them, none of these murderers chants back then, just solidarity, there wasn't an Everton fan whose family was not affected by the tragedy.

Nowaday's Liverpool supporters are labelled bin dippers, murderers and always the victims by some who were not even born at the time and indeed those who were, but I would say that they were no different back then to any other club.

People point to Heysel and the deaths there, that was awful, but those of us who went to football back then will tell you, there wasn't a football club in the land who would not have done the same thing at Heysel when confronted by opposition supporters in the same end attacking their fellow fans.

Indeed only a year earlier at Highbury Saints fans had been involved in a battle on the pitch with Everton that was far more violent and went on far longer that Heysel, people could have easily been killed in that one.

OK I have a vested interest, most reading this will know I come from a Liverpool family, but I will say Liverpool never painted themselves as victims, all they ever wanted was justice and to refute the lies published about them that day.

They never gave up in getting the truth seen, that is not being a victim, that is standing up for what is right, that is why although I will always be a Southampton man and support Saints I am proud of my heritage, as it has made me stand up for what i believe is right in life.

I remember the days back then, in the short term it was the beginning of a much needed change in football, the violence calmed down, it was safe to go to a game, out of it came the Independent Supporters Associations and fans groups saying no more are we going to put up with crumbling stadium, poor facilities and policing that was more violent than the behaviour.

Sadly as the year went by things changed and Liverpool started being called murderers and victims, fans groups waned as the type of person going to the game was priced out by greedy owners and the Premier League, but for while there was a change.

When I walked into Upton Park that day, I expected violence on a grand scale if we won, thankfully since that afternoon I have rarely felt threatened since, of course it hasn't gone away, it never did, but after 1989 it was safe to go to football again, the violence was now underground and between select groups not the free for all it had been.

I'm not going to make Scousers out to be some sort of angels, but neither are they the scum that they have been painted.

I'm sorry if it doesn't fit in with the hatred so many want to feel against Liverpool these days, but I can only tell you how it was back then, but for my fathers decision to move to Southampton, I could well have been at Hillsborough and not at Upton Park, it doesn't weigh heavily on me, I wasn't there and I wasn't traumatised by seeing so many die, but I felt their pain then, not just me but most football fans, and i felt and still feel their injustice and need for the truth.

15th April 1989 changed the way we all watched football, for a while anyway.

Photo: Action Images

darthvader added 00:40 - Apr 16 A really weird day horrific number of deaths . Just people going to watch their team as football fans , never came home . Quirk of fate i was at the other semi final that day as my best mate was an Everton fan so we went to most saints games home and away and a few everton games , obviously he picked this one to go to . I remember it so well , we were in the Holte end at villa park next to the barrier that ran up the middle of the terracing splitting the fans , we were about half way up . Ripping into to the norwich fans etc when the big score board said the other game was suspended because of crowd problems . We all assumed it was fighting , then updated again that game was suspended . Then a few more minutes passed and people with radios were telling other people that 30people had died in a fire , then not a fire but a crush and the figure got higher . People were crying on the terraces , some left at halftime having family at the other game . A day that will never be forgotten . For the first time in my life the results of the football didnt matter . I just had to find a phonebox to phone my mum to tell her i was safe as all she knew is i was at the fa.cup semi final . She cried when i rang . Happy tears at first and then guilty tears for being happy that it was the other game .

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TimSaint added 17:13 - Apr 16 2 of my 2nd Cousins, who are Forest fans, were at the game and had to watch proceedings unfold from the Kop End. Haven't spoken to them about it for many many years, but do remember them saying that they felt so helpless watching it, as news came through that people were dying. They questioned why Forest had the Kop and Liverpool the Leppings Lane End, as it seemed on the day that there were twice as many scousers in Sheffield than Forest fans.

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