Knock down Leppings Lane End, says tragic Baggies fan's brother

THE brother of a West Bromwich Albion fan who died in Hillsborough's infamous Leppings Lane End has called for the stand to be reduced to a "pile of rubble".

- DAVE HIGGENS

The Leppings Lane End, scene of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989

Mark Townsend, 57, from Oldbury, died after he suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed among fellow Baggies supporters during a match at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium on September 28, 2024.

Yesterday, after a two-week inquest, Sheffield's senior coroner, Tanyka Rawden, said she accepted there had been confusion between the paramedics from the private medical team contracted by Wednesday, who were the first to get to Mr Townsend, and those who arrived later from Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

But she said she did not believe this "caused or contributed" to Mr Townsend's death and concluded he died from natural causes.

Mr Townsend's brother, Steve Townsend, claimed the inquest did not focus enough on the difficulties presented to the emergency teams by the confined spaces of the Leppings Lane stand, which is where the Hillsborough disaster happened in 1989 - leaving 97 Liverpool fans dead.

"Is it fit for purpose in this day and age, in a ground so synonymous with personal tragedy?" he asked.

He added: "I'd like nothing more than to see it in a pile of rubble, to be perfectly honest, and I think that should have been a finding."