Saints kick off time against Cardiff City next month will be delayed by seven minutes as a mark of respect to those who lost their lives at Hillsborough 25 years ago

All matches in the Premier League, Football League, Football Conference & FA Cup due to be played on the weekend of 11-14 th April will kick off with a delay of 7 minutes as a mark of respect for those who lost their lives at the Hillsborough disaster on 15th April 1989. this will be preceded by a minutes silence.

Ironically Saints played at Hillsborough on the weekend that marked the 20th Anniversary and those Saints fans that travelled found themselves stood in silence on the very terrace where the tragedy had unfolded back in 1989. Hopefully Saints and Cardiff fans will observe the minutes silence this time with the same reverence that the Saints and Sheffield Wednesday fans did 5 years ago.

It is good to see that the authorities have announced this tribute, since they have done i have seen some disgusting comments on social media sites, many it should be said from those who were not even alive back in 1989 calling Liverpool fans all sorts of names, but this tribute is not about individual teams its about the fact that due to the incompetence of those responsible for ensuring the safety of supporters that day, 96 innocent people lost their lives and we should respect this tribute to them because of that.

There are those that have often criticised Liverpool fans for the way in which they refused to merely accept the rulings at the time and in the past year or so they have been justified in their fight for justice and their persistence not only has helped shape the way modern day supporters are treated, but changed a lot of things for the better.

Those of us who are old enough to have been watching our team back then will remember the day well, we will also remember just how supporters were treated back then by the Police and authorities, that being the case it could easily have been a case of "there but for the grace of god go I" back then Hillsborough was considered one of the more modern stadia, I have watched Saints in far far worse and dangerous conditions than the Leppings Lane End.

But prejudices should be forgotten on this weekend we should remember the 96 people who went to a football game 25 years earlier and never came home, in football sometimes things are bigger than petty rivalries and Hillsborough was and is one of those.

Photo: Action Images

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