Opinion | The sacrifice has not been in vain
A new inquest is under way to finally clear the good names of the Hillsborough 96 once and for all - justice will be done
It has been a sombre, moving week amid this hurly-burly, nail-biting season. Twenty-five years after the Hillsborough tragedy - football's JFK moment - emotions remain raw.
Many remember where they were when they heard the first death count from events on that sunny April Saturday in 1989, when Liverpool met Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday's ground.
It is the most infamous day in the history of English soccer. The series of news flashes following the Leppings Lane end crush - the steady rise in fatalities - still echo clear in the mind's ear.
Lifting the EPL trophy next month would be a fitting remembrance to mark the passing of quarter of century since watching live football changed forever
"I can remember it as if it was yesterday," then-Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar said before Tuesday's memorial. "For two hours on the journey back home by the team coach we just listened to the radio. Every 10, 15 minutes we would hear an update - 20 deaths, 25 deaths. When it got to 30 deaths we switched off the radio. We couldn't listen any more."
Ninety seconds into the semi-final, Liverpool hit the crossbar and after a Forest attack a wayward ball was fired into the Leppings Lane terracing.
"I went to get the ball back," Grobbelaar recalled this week. What he saw and heard still distresses him. He said initially some families blamed him for their loved ones' deaths.
"I went to see a family in Birkenhead. They told me I was the guy who killed their son. And they closed the door. Their son went to watch me play, watch us play - they blamed me."