08/04/1990:
The other semi-final was at Maine Road between 2nd Division Oldham and Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.
2-2 after 90 minutes. Barry Davies is superb, as was the entertainment…
“This is the stuff of schoolboy comics”
In 2002, Gavin Hopley was nineteen years old. He was looking for a taxi after a night out in Oldham. He took a wrong turn. He became separated from his friends. He walked, unknowingly, into Glodwick, an area widely understood to be a “no-go zone” for white people.
He found himself alone in an alleyway, surrounded by a group of Pakistani men. A man used a fence post to launch himself and kicked Gavin in the head. The force lifted him off the ground. He hit the pavement head-first. His skull took the impact. The damage was catastrophic. As he lay unconscious and dying, his attackers robbed him taking his watch and his neck chain.
Gavin Hopley never regained consciousness. He died six days later from massive head injuries. Ten men were arrested. But all murder charges were dropped. Though some were convicted of lesser offences, no one was ever punished for Gavin’s death.