Following on from a post yesterday about an anniversary, today is another one, only this time both infinitely more important, and infinitely sadder.
I vaguely recall FA Cup semi final weekend in 1989. I was at home at Maidstone Road, and the TV in the lounge was on, with coverage from the game. But, as we know, the game didn't get very far, and soon the pictures stopped being about football, and started to be about confusion and chaos, as we watched a national tragedy unfold before our eyes.
The 80s were when I discovered football, and for me it started with the FA Cup. I decided to choose a side in the 81 final, and have been a Spurs fan ever since, only just avoiding becoming a Manchester City follower. However, there really was no question which the team of the decade was - Liverpool FC. At times, they played the best football by a mile, and had sides packed full of stars that we remember fondly even now: Bruce Grobbelaar, the comedy goalkeeper with the wobbly knees; Alan Hansen, captain, and solid as a rock in defence; Jan Molby, the laid back playmaker in midfield who could read the game so well he rarely needed to break into a jog; John Barnes, the quick-footed winger who thought he could rap; and, some fantastic strikers - first Ian Rush and then John Aldridge.
Liverpool FC have been through some tough times since those glory days, both on and off the pitch. But, maybe things are about to change. There is to be another inquest into what happened on that awful day a quarter of a century ago, and maybe we will get to the truth about what the sequence of mistakes and mishaps were that led to the death of 96 innocent football fans.
And on the football field, maybe Stevie Gerrard will get to hold the Premier League trophy aloft at the end of the season, and personally, I think that would be fantastic - for the team, the fans, the city, the whole of football, and just in a very very small way, for the families that have suffered so much and for so long.