Nineteen months have passed since Albion fan Mark Townsend lost his life on the club’s last trip to Hillsborough.
“No matter how many tickets they give us, there will still be one extra in that crowd, and they'll be there forever.”
Albion head to Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough on Saturday for the first time since September 28, 2024, when lifelong supporter Mark Townsend lost his life aged 57 following a heart attack.
The experience was a harrowing ordeal for the Townsend family and friends and Albion fans in the Leppings Lane end.
It took a little more than 12 months for the inquest and coroner’s report last October. The family were left disappointed factors they felt contributed to Mark’s death, such as the immediate aftermath of his collapse, were not more central to the report.
Mark’s younger brother Steve admitted the first return to the South Yorkshire ground was always going to resonate.
“It’s a game I’ll always look for. As a football fan, I'm always going to look at the fixtures, but now that one's always going to be synonymous with what's happened,” Steve told the Express & Star.
“If it was any old fixture I'd just give it the glance over and say ‘there's your three points’.
“But now I want us to go there and make our kid proud.”
Steve, son Matthew, who was there on the day, and family were invited to Hillsborough as guests of the hosts for Saturday’s final fixture of the Championship season.
He and Matthew politely declined and understandably do not want to set foot in the stadium again.
From a playing perspective there is little on the line now James Morrison led the Baggies to Championship safety with last weekend’s draw against Ipswich.
“I'm glad it didn't fall round about the one-year anniversary of Mark,” Steve added.
“But with it being the last game of the season, with the way our season's gone, I was thinking there could be a lot riding on it up until the last few weeks.
“I saw online how many away tickets there are. No matter how many tickets they give us, there will still be one extra in that crowd, and they'll be there forever.”
Steve and Matthew have supported the Baggies from the Birmingham Road end this season having moved season ticket a handful of rows from the area they sat with Mark.
They have not travelled to away fixtures this season.
Mark’s memory will never be far from Albion. The family have praised the “dignified” way the club honoured the Oldbury-based former BWM factory worker after his death.
Fundraising Albion fans teamed up with cardiac charity Red Sky Foundation and ‘Lauren’s Legacy’, a campaign in memory of Sheffield Wednesday fan Lauren Walker, who died aged 29.
In excess of £2,000 was raised in bucket collections and four defibrillators were installed outside The Hawthorns, in line with the ‘one in every corner’ campaign. They come with a plaque reading the names of Mark and Lauren.
Albion supporters will lay a floral wreath in memory of Mark at the Hillsborough memorial dedicated to the 97 football fans who lost their lives in the 1989 stadium disaster.
That gesture comes after travelling fans raised hundreds of pounds on buses to recent away matches at Blackburn and Preston.
Kingstanding-based Steve added: “The defibs are not just helping the Albion, but helping the local community as well where they've been placed. It's a nice legacy for Mark to have.
“We’ve only moved six rows forward from where we were at the ground. The people we’d have banter with will still come and see how we are.
“They’d say ‘your kid wouldn’t have liked that’ - that would’ve happened a lot this season!
“The Albion have been fantastic. I can’t fault how they’ve conducted themselves. It's been nice that everybody remembers and it's been a dignified way they've done it.
“They haven't got over the top with it in any way, shape or form - which I didn't want, and Mark wouldn't have wanted that.”
