The BBC documentary also gives a sense of why the obvious thing for fans to do as the gates were opened was to walk straight through the central tunnel. It was also the first time I'd heard that pre-match recording of John Motson for example, where he's talking off air saying it's strange how the terrace is being filled up in the centre but there was still a lot of space wide. That was when someone who knew the ground could still have fixed things. So many missed opportunities.
The pens were a dangerous response to a problem. Hillsborough itself had already had the warning of how dangerous a response when the police struggled to open gates to evacuate fans to the pitch edge at the Spurs semi. There was no way to escape by moving fans sideways away from the goal towards the corners. Once the stadium was allowed (encouraged?) to take a design decision like that then the management has to be perfect to make each pen load correctly.
It wasn't one man's mistake, his response was symptomatic of the treatment of fans in that era, another error in a chain of them. It's because it wasn't just one bad few minutes when the police command failed that the cover-up that followed was so aggressive and so complete.
One thing that struck me is how 'out of the way' the entrances to the side pens were. The documentary showed a camera looking down the famous tunnel with 'STANDING' written in massive letters above it, it panned all the way to the end of the stand and right in the corner there was a tiny sign up high that said 'Standing' with an arrow. In all that chaos, been herded around like sardines, it doesn't at all surprise me that very few drifted off to the side and instead headed straight for the centre.
Disgusting mismanagement by the police. Truly disgusting. It may be easy to say in hindsight, but it doesn't even look all that difficult to evenly guide supporters among the different pens, they had more than enough police to strategically place them in a manner that eases the congestion and separates them to avoid a complete disaster.
I was delighted when the verdict of unlawful killing came through, I'll be even more delighted if cnuts like Duckenfield, MacKenzie and that turd who was Thatcher's press secretary get what they deserve - among others.
