Arrival of supporters

1. Up to at least 1pm, the number of supporters in the vicinity of the stadium was quite small, despite advance efforts by SYP to encourage people to enter the ground early. These included messages in match programmes at preceding home games of both teams and a promise of pre-match entertainment in the stadium (which did not take place). 
    
2. The first cars and minibuses carrying Liverpool supporters began to arrive shortly after 11am, and the first coaches arrived in designated coach parks at around 11.45am. 
    
3. After the disaster, a persistent theme in police officers’ accounts was that supporters travelled to Sheffield early and then went to pubs or bought alcohol from shops. Evidence from a range of sources strongly indicates that there was nothing out of the ordinary about this. The licensee of a pub a short distance from the stadium—The Horse and Jockey—confirmed he was expecting to be busy with football supporters.
    
4. The likelihood of supporters drinking featured in numerous police briefings and instructions. For example, Serial 48 under Police Sergeant Derek Miller (PS Miller) had instructions to pay particular attention to licensed premises in the Wadsley and Middlewood areas. In a statement to Operation Resolve, PS Miller confirmed that they started patrol at 11.30am and visited several pubs which were busy with Liverpool supporters. He described them as being in “high spirits” but presenting no problems.
    
5. Though there were instructions to “pay attention”, there was no direction within the Operational Order about how to deal with supporters drinking: a clear oversight given its likelihood. 
    
6. Some 52 coaches of Liverpool supporters arrived between 12.30pm and 1.45pm. Some of those who travelled by coach went directly to the stadium; others felt it was too early, so chose to go for a drink. As the available pubs were mostly full, some bought drinks from shops instead. 

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Figure 4B: View of Leppings Lane and the entrance at 13:59:53 (Source: SYP CCTV)

1. From around 1pm, the numbers of supporters at the ground steadily increased. Figure 4B shows the scene at the Leppings Lane entrance at 13:59:53. It is taken from SYP CCTV footage, which would have been visible to those in the PCB. 
    
2. While the situation at the entrance presented no issues, various witnesses have commented on how empty some of the areas of the stadium allocated to Liverpool supporters were at this time. Inspector Peter Darling (Insp Darling), on duty in the South Stand, visited the SWFC control room around this time. He told the Taylor Inquiry that someone in the control room had noted there were only 12,000 people inside the ground at that stage, compared to 20,000 at the same time at the previous year’s Semi-Final. This information would have been based on turnstile count data, which was displayed on a screen in the control room. However, Insp Darling did not mention this to the PCB and there is no evidence to indicate that anyone in the PCB actively requested this potentially invaluable data.
    
3. Some officers have since acknowledged that, if they had known how few supporters were in the stadium at 2pm, they would have been concerned.