The president of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, Trevor Hicks, hopes respect will be shown when Liverpool face Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday. The Premier League meeting will be the club's first home game since the recent publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report into the 1989 tragedy where 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death.
"It's a big day on a normal occasion, and Sunday is the first game after the report," Hicks, whose two teenage daughters died in the tragedy, told Sky Sports News.
"The Everton fans were absolutely magic the other night. The way they marked the report was unbelievable and I would hope that Sunday can be the same on our home ground at Anfield. It would be fitting for the memory of the 96 if it could be as it was at Everton.
"It has been one of the things that's kept us together, the support of the fans at Anfield, in particular, but across Liverpool and across the nation has been fantastic. We wouldn't have been able to get through the 23 years without all that support so it will even more poignant than normal."
Asked if he fears some fans might not respect the planned tributes at Anfield, Hicks believes derogatory chants over such disasters as Hillsborough must stop.
"It is non-fans, the yobbos the proper fans are there for the football," added Hicks. "Yes, we all chant, we all rant, but we can be rivals and I have no problem with that.
"I have friends who are Man Utd fans and we laugh and we joke and we pull each other's legs, but that is where it should stop and being nasty about tragedies should stop."
