The IRA bombed Manchester. I was down in London for England v Scotland. I remember it being a red hot day and we were drinking round central London. Everyone was bollocksed and there was scrapping all over. Every five minutes little scuffles broke out and every twenty minutes big scuffles broke out. We found some back street boozer out of the heat and mayhem and the barman mentioned there'd been in bomb in Manchester a couple of hours earlier. Nowadays you'd know ten seconds later. We thought nothing of it and continued our day. Cracking day it was too, in the ground right next to the Scots. It was the end where McAllister missed his pen, he was still with Leeds at the time, just about to leave. There was all sorts getting lobbed over the fences.

It was years later when I thought how surreal it was that this massive event that caused so much damage and injury just never really affected us down in the country's capital. There seemed to be no extra security at the ground, the day went on, everyone was pissed and reasonably happy. I remember after the match been in a pub at the bar waiting to be served and the TV news was on and one lad asked his mate what had happened and he said, 'I dunno, a bomb or summat in Manchester'.
'Ah right.. what you drinking?'

I'm assuming it's social media now that makes everything feel so immediate and everyone want to be a part of it and desperate to tweet about whatever events going on. Different times.

Just seeing the van explode on this clip is chilling. I worked with a girl who had to evacuate the area, she worked in a shoe shop or something. Someone once popped a balloon in the office and she jumped a mile and started having a panic attack reliving 'a bomb or summat'.