AS soon as five days after the disaster at Hillsborough in 1989, the Bromsgrove Advertiser (then the Messenger) took the side of the fans, putting across their side of the story over the events which led to 96 deaths.

After Bromsgrove Liverpool fan Andrew Brookes died in the crush at Hillsborough stadium on April 15, the Messenger spoke to four of his friends who had travelled up to the match with him that tragic day, several of whom were also caught up in events.

Under the front page headline ‘Police to blame, say pals’ Messenger reporters Pete Lammas and Waseem Zakir interviewed Mark Richards, Peter Wallis, and brothers Stephen and John Harris, who were all in their 20s at the time and were deeply affected by the disaster, and printed their version of events rather than the police version, blaming the fans for the disaster, which hit the front pages of most of the national papers

John Harris felt clear about the fault lying with South Yorkshire Police, even so close to the disaster, pointing out the abnormal police presence on the 90-mile drive up to the match compared to staffing at the stadium itself.

He said: “Every service station was swarming with police. There were six or eight policemen on each petrol pump, but when we got to the ground there were two policemen controlling thousands of people – just two on horses for a whole mass of people outside the ground.”

According to Stephen Harris, from Catshill, there was no queuing system. He said: “There wasn’t any order. It was chaos and confusion all around.”

John added: “I blame the police for the death of my friend.”

All the men agreed that there was a need for something to be done to relieve the pressure outside the ground, but said it would not have reached that stage if proper adequate measures had been taken by the police.

The coverage went on to describe what it had been like inside the crush for Mark and Stephen. John narrowly avoided the surge into the central stand where the crush took place.

He said he was “crushed tightly against a wall and people were screaming for the gates to be opened.” At a minute to 3pm “there was a great surge of people towards an opening and I was trapped outside next to a wall. My instincts told me not to go through.”

All of the men described how the crush outside the stadium had left their clothes wringing with sweat, and Mark had been separated from Andrew at the last minute despite Andrew’s insistence that they stick together. He said: “We could not stick together. He went one way and I went the other, there was no way we could stick together.”

Mark was one of the first to be pulled over the safety barrier by the police. He said: “I held out my hand and a copper then grabbed me.”

Stephen said: “People were screaming, falling all around me. I saw two people on the floor who were a purple colour. I passed five or six bodies over my head to the ambulance.”

Some of the policemen didn’t realise the seriousness of the situation. Stephen said: “The copper tried to push us back over the barrier. They didn’t realise the situation was that bad and people were dying.”