LONDON, England (CNN)  -- They left home with hope in their hearts, thousands of fans true to the Liverpool anthem, dreaming of reaching another Wembley FA Cup Final.

The disaster at Hillsborough football stadium in 1989 resulted in the deaths of 96 football supporters.

But what began as a day out in the spring sunshine 20 years ago ended as the darkest hour in the history of British football.

I had settled into Row B Seat 2 of the press box in the south stand at Hillsborough, home to Sheffield Wednesday and neutral venue for the game. From there I would have had an uninterrupted view of the semifinal showdown between Liverpool and Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest.

Clough, one of the legends of the British game, had been denied an FA Cup Final with Forest a year earlier, when his side lost to Liverpool at the same stage of the competition and at the same venue.

The atmosphere in the ground for the 1989 semifinal exploded as the teams emerged onto the pitch. But none of us was prepared for what was to follow.

The match action lasted less than six minutes. I can't remember a single kick. What I do recall quite vividly are the scenes of distress, desperation and death at the Liverpool end that destroyed so many families and shocked the world.

Looking to my left and behind Liverpool keeper Bruce Grobbelaar's goal, I was drawn to a huge mushroom-like effect among the crowd in the central standing enclosures around kick-off time.  See Liverpool players and fans paying tribute to victims of Hillsborough disaster »

The match had not long started when the first signs of a major problem surfaced. Fans began frantically attempting to climb over the perimeter fence to escape the crush at the Leppings Lane end of the ground.

I didn't know it at the time, but the swell was the exit point of a tunnel that ran under the stand. Through it hundreds of Liverpool fans had attempted to make their way without realizing the two caged pens it led to were already overcrowded.

Many had the life squeezed out of them in that tunnel. Others were trampled or crushed to death on the terraces. The lucky ones clambered to safety, many collapsing on the pitch.

Some fans were hoisted up into the stand above by fellow supporters, but the main escape route was over the high perimeter fence and later through a small gate that was forced open as police -- who initially thought they were dealing with a pitch invasion -- recognized the true scale of the problem.

Advertising boards were used as makeshift stretchers and some of those being carried away had their heads covered by coats. The Sheffield Wednesday gymnasium became a mortuary.

The Liverpool end of the pitch resembled a casualty station with frantic efforts being made to treat the injured and save lives while others wandered aimlessly around the pitch in a daze.

I will always remember the bid to revive one young fan in front of the main stand. Those efforts seemed to go on forever before finally hundreds of spectators let out a huge cheer as the lad at last showed some sign of life. I still wonder to this day whether or not he made it.

Meanwhile I had an open phoneline to a copytaker at The Press Association and described those shocking events unfolding in front of me, including news of the first fatalities.

For the second time in four years I had gone to cover a football match and ended up filing a disaster report.

In 1985 I had been in Brussels with Liverpool to cover their European Cup final against Juventus, when 39 fans, mainly Italian, were killed at the Heysel stadium as a wall collapsed after trouble on the terraces. That match eventually went ahead after a delay of 85 minutes.

Within hhours of returning from Belgium, I was among a small group of football writers summoned to No. 10 Downing Street for a meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Mrs Thatcher planned draconian measures to combat what became known as the English disease, but it was the appalling events at Sheffield that finally became the catalyst for change.

The Hillsborough tragedy was played out in
How many people were killed in the disaster? In which match did the Hillsborough disaster occur? How many fans died in the Hllsborough disaster?
96 semifinal showdown between Liverpool and Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. 96 football supporters.
question: How many people were killed in the disaster?, answer: 96 | question: In which match did the Hillsborough disaster occur?, answer: semifinal showdown between Liverpool and Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. | question: How many fans died in the Hllsborough disaster?, answer: 96 football supporters.