TWO LEGGED CUP TIES; A DISASTER

On March 9th 1946 at Burnden Park, then the home of Bolton Wanderers, the Trotters played host to Stoke City, the Potters, in a sixth round FA Cup tie, second leg. A win for Bolton, already 2-0 up from the first leg, would put them in the semi-final and one step away from Wembley. This was the first and only time that the FA Cup played two legged ties.

Stoke City had Stanley Matthews in their ranks, a wizard who could turn a game. 85,000 turned up to a match that was going to be a classic.

When the teams emerged from the dressing rooms the overcrowded Embankment Stand surged forward and fans lost their feet, falling to the floor and were trampled on as crush barriers collapsed under the weight of a huge crowd. 39 died and over 500 were treated for injuries.

A parent in the crowd trying to escape the crush with a little lad, had left a gate open and fans poured into the ground. Others got in by jumping over barriers, adding around 2000 extras to the disaster.

An enquiry stated that not all stands and turnstiles were open, adding to the crush as certain points in the ground. The investigation, headed by R. Moelwyn Hughes KC,  recommended that at future matches crowds should be monitored by mechanical means, hence the eventual use of counters at turnstiles. This was not enforced at the time and four decades later the complacency of the authorities contributed to the dreadful events at Hillsborough in April 1989 when 96 supporters suffered a similar fate.

Add to this disasters at Ibrox in April 1902 when 25 died during a Scotland v England international, the Bradford City fire in May 1985 which claimed 56 lives, the 66 deaths at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow in October 1982 when Spartak Moscow met Haarlem in an UEFA cup tie, 43 deaths at Ellis Park (Johannesburg) in April 2001 and the deaths of 39 fans at Heysel in Brussels in May 1985 at the European Cup Final; football has much to grieve over.