The night Liverpool and Manchester united to demand justice for Hillsborough victims

By Brian Reade

Published 20:57 09/12/11

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Cynical missives arrived after last week's piece asking fans who chant about Munich and Hillsborough to re-think their bile following the death of Gary Speed.

How can you mourn the death of a football man you never knew, yet glorify the deaths of others in song, I asked.

And from a few people who purport to be Liverpool and Manchester United fans came a response best summed up as: "We hate each other and want to hurt each other. Always will. Anyone who doesn't get the hate isn't from either city."

Really? Well, last Friday at the Manchester HMV Ritz, during a barnstorming gig starring Mick Jones, Pete Wylie and The Farm, in aid of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, Ian Brown and John Squire took to the stage for the first time since 1995.

The Stone Roses men, showing solidarity with their Scouse brothers in music, and singing Clash sings with Jones, was an historic pop moment.

When the show ended, Brown, a die-hard United fan, said: "I've always said 'it's not about where you're from, it's about where you're at' and tonight you saw Liverpool and Manchester United together.

"We're two ends of the same city in my eyes, and if we'd got it together London would never have got a look-in."

Touche, as they say in Garston and Gorton.

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Manchester City's Champions League exit won't affect their chances of winning the Premier League.

But there was a worrying sign, during Wednesday's game that something else might. The Etihad stadium fell silent when news came through that Napoli had taken the lead at Villarreal, and stayed dead until five minutes before the end when news of Basel's second goal came through.

There were dropped heads all around when they should have been celebrating playing Bayern Munich off the park. City fans have been kicked in the guts so many times by fate that many probably believe they're having a dream they will soon be rudely woken from.

But the funereal atmosphere, which fed through to the players, bodes badly for the title run-in, when the going will get tough, and any sense of fear will be seized on by opponents.

Fans should look at the players currently wearing light blue, realise how far they've come and lift the roof off.

**

Arsenal yesterday unveiled not one but three statues to celebrate their 125th anniversary. And they chose who they perceive to be the three greatest figures in their history. Herbert Chapman, Tony Adams and Thierry Henry.

Let's face it, all are far more worthy of a bronze tribute than Michael Jackson, but the choice does raise a question: How gutted will Franny Jeffers, Jimmy Carter and Gus Caesar be?

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