Hillsborough Disaster: Liverpool FC fan still searching for pair from ticket swap in Sheffield after 4 years

Alan Griffiths posted his appeal as @lfc19times on Twitter on April 14, 2019, revealing he and a friend had given their seated tickets to a man and young boy, in exchange for their Leppings Lane terrace tickets, outside Hillsborough Stadium on the day of the disaster.

Alan wrote: “The people we swapped with were an older guy and either his son or grandson of about nine or 10. He was worried about the large crowds that day and wanted to sit to watch the game.

"It was possibly one of the few good things to come out of the Hillsborough Disaster. I genuinely believe they wouldn’t have gotten out safely if we [hadn’t] swapped tickets.

"My friend and I escaped by climbing over the front fence. It was just over 2.8 metres high and the older guy and the kid would never have managed it. We were 23 and 24, physically fit, sporty, strong and very lucky.

"I would love to get in touch with them just to let them know we got out ok. I can only imagine what they must have been thinking afterwards.”

This week saw exactly four years pass since he first made his appeal on social media in 2019. This morning, Alan spoke to Radio 4’s Today show, where he shared word of his search and a harrowing account of the disaster.

Alan emotionally recalled his escape as he stood in what is now the West Stand and the guilt he felt as he climbed over the fence. He said: “The only way to climb up that 14-foot fence was to climb on bodies.”

He told Today’s JP Devlin it would have been “nigh on impossible” for the older man and the young boy they’d swapped tickets with to climb the fence. He said: “I could only have feared the worst for them if they had been in here. So I do feel a little bit glad that something good may have come out of the day.”