Hillsborough disaster: Sunderland man's remembers 'worst experience in a lifetime' on 35th anniversary of tragedy

A Sunderland man has looked back on the Hillsborough disaster - the day he still remembers as the worst of his life.

Ray Matthews, now 69, saw bodies being taken away, just yards from where he and his brother Keith were sitting.

‘They were bringing the dead towards us’

“Stewards were carrying out one girl and she had gone blue. They put a blanket over her face,” he said.

“We were on the corner beside the end at the side of the pitch where it was happening. The worst thing about it was they were bringing the dead towards us.”

Today (Monday, April 15) marks the 35th anniversary of the disaster in which 97 people were killed and more than 760 others were injured.

‘You don’t forget things like that’

Men, women and children died on the day of the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Ray, recently retired after 31 years of working in the drinks sector, said: “Every five years that go by, I think of it. You don’t forget things like that.

“I used to work in the collieries. People say to me ‘you worked down the pits and anything could have happened. Hillsborough was the worst experience of my lifetime so far.”

‘You heard people behind the goal shouting help’

Ray, originally from Horden, remembered the Cup match getting under way, and added: “It just went noisy and you just heard people in the crowd behind the goal shouting ‘help’.

“The next thing we knew, the game was stopped. It was just mayhem from then onwards.”

Ray was on football’s Northern League Management Committee and got tickets for him and his brother from the then chairman Arthur Clarke.

‘It was two hours before we could phone our dad to tell him we were okay’

“My brother said he would go providing we went to watch greyhound racing in Sheffield afterwards. We never got there because of what happened.”

Back home, the brothers’ dad was frantic as he watched TV coverage of the disaster.

“He was wondering if we were alright. These were the days before mobile phones. It was two hours before we could get to a phone and tell him we were okay.”

Ray and Keith were not allowed out of the ground for hours. The scenes which unfolded in front of them were ‘unbelievable’, said Ray.

He added: “I still think about it at 69 years old.”