I ran through it down the stairwell. The subterranean fire burning away the toes and heels and insults of my trains.

Just as I made it over the wall, went down through the steps of the plastic seating area at the front.

The fire swept past me overhead. That was a terrifying eight-foot drop, and running for my life, my instinct for survival had taken over.

I knew I still wasn't safe. The roof over the lower half of the stair end was blazing now too,

and I started to feel a burning sensation tear at the back of my head.

With no warning, I suddenly lost control of my body. It seemed

as having an out-of-body experience. Flying through the air, my burning head and blurred,

watery vision, the only reminders I was still conscious, I felt myself full, and was dragged like

a ragdoll, then rolled over before I came to rest on the soft, wet brouse on my bare naked stomach.

Welcome to It Was When It Was a Thoughtball History podcast. I'm Jonathan Wilson and with Rob Draper.

And that was an extraordinary first-hand testimony of Martin Fletcher in his book, The 56, about the

fire at Bradford.

But today we're beginning a two-part series on the end of the 84-5 season,

perhaps the bleakest time in English football history. When it seemed there was an instant of hooliganism

every week and he had the two dreadful tragedies of Bradford and Heisle. It was a time when it seemed

that football might not go on.

So I think in a sense this period,

and we should be aware that in a sense this period presages what happens at Hills before years later.

We should also be aware that the causes of these tragedies are not the same but it this was the time of the notorious sunday times

editorial the weekend after the the the bradford fire which happened on the 11th of may notion 5th

that described football as a slum sport played in the slum stadiums, increasingly watched by slum people.

So, Rob, what was going on and how did football get in the state? And where are we beginning

...