On the morning of September 28, Mark Townsend set off to Sheffield, hoping to see his beloved West Bromwich Albion stretch their lead at the top of the English Championship.
He did not come home.
The 57-year-old collapsed in the away end at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough Stadium midway through the first half of West Brom’s 3-2 defeat.
Despite desperate attempts initially from Albion fans and then from paramedics to revive him during the match, the club announced his death that evening.
Amid the devastation, there are also deeply concerning claims about the length of time it took for medical staff to arrive at the scene after Mark collapsed. His brother, Steve, is calling for a coroner’s inquest into the medical response.
“I don’t know if a rapid response would have helped,” he tells The Athletic. “It could have been a massive heart attack, dead before he hit the floor. But whether a swifter response would have changed anything, I would have loved to have thought it would have done and my brother would still be here. It shouldn’t have happened, and I want a full inquest into the failings.”
The Athletic has spoken to multiple eyewitnesses who have outlined the following apparent failings in the care provided by the club and its medical services:
- Eleven people told us that there was a gap of at least nine minutes between Mark collapsing and being seen by an official medic, when last season’s target was two minutes. Sheffield Wednesday insisted to The Athletic it was only four minutes.
- Fans claim there were issues in reporting the seriousness of the situation to stewards.
- The first defibrillator brought to treat Mark ran out of battery after two shocks.
- Hillsborough’s narrow passageways made transporting Mark “extremely difficult”.
- Spectators say there was a span of 20 minutes between Mark collapsing and any oxygen being provided.
“I don’t want anybody else to go through this. It could be anybody in that stand,” says Steve. “I wouldn’t want one of their fans to suffer, and my brother suffered. Nobody should go to a game of football and not come out.”
After the game, a statement from Sheffield Wednesday read: “The thoughts of everyone at Sheffield Wednesday remain with the loved ones of Mr Townsend and the wider West Bromwich Albion community.
“The club continue to liaise with West Bromwich Albion and all relevant parties as we collectively establish the full circumstances regarding this tragic loss of life.”
In August, an investigation by The Athletic highlighted several ongoing safety concerns in the away stand at Hillsborough, known as the West Stand or Leppings Lane End. In 1989, this was the site of the worst disaster in British football history, when 97 Liverpool supporters were unlawfully killed in a crush during that year’s FA Cup semi-final.
Thirty-five years on, The Athletic’s report featured testimonies from fans of at least six clubs who had experienced serious safety issues in recent years, including numerous concerns about the stadium’s quality of stewarding, particularly the training offered to them, and difficulties created by the Leppings Lane End’s narrow gangways.
“You would think if one club in the country was going to have top-notch fan safety, in light of what happened there 35 years ago, it would be Hillsborough,” Steve says. “Unfortunately, it seems not.”
This was going to be Mark’s final season following Albion home and away. Retirement beckoned, including a house in Donegal in the Republic of Ireland that he and his wife, Marion, had been building. It was two-thirds finished when he died. The plan was still to fly home for West Brom games at least once a month.
He had met Marion in Austria during a 12-month stint working abroad for car manufacturer BMW — her brother owned the bar he and his co-workers used to pop in for a drink. When they were married, he made sure his suit, and the flower girl’s dresses, were in Albion blue and white.
“Marion was the love of his life,” says his brother-in-law, Jimmy. “When they were married, they had a combined hen and stag do in Ireland. It became an annual tradition, where the same group would travel to Donegal for the famous ‘bus tour’ led by Mark and Maz. It was so important to Mark.
Mark’s job was building engines, an industry veteran of 40 years who worked at the Hams Hall plant, east of Birmingham. Following West Brom was not his only hobby — he was a huge fan of Paul Weller’s music — but it was a lifelong love. With Steve often required home as a carer for his wife, Mark would frequently go to matches with his nephew, Steve’s son, Matt.
Mark and Matt had travelled on a supporters’ coach to Hillsborough and had included a fry-up at a Wetherspoon pub in nearby Barnsley.
“He adored Matt,” recalls Jimmy. “He was like my brother. This year, I asked him: ‘What’s that aftershave you’re wearing?’. A few days later I received a message: ‘I’ve left that aftershave behind for you, pal’.”
Fifteen minutes before kick-off, with Steve watching the match on television, he received a selfie of Mark and Matt together in the stand from his son.
Mark Townsend and his nephew, Matt, before kick-off at Hillsborough (Courtesy of Steve Townsend)
The match did not start well for West Brom, who were 2-0 down after 23 minutes, but shortly after, it was clear to Steve something more serious was happening.
“I heard (West Brom club commentator) Andy Johnson essentially go: ‘There’s a bit of a commotion going on in the away end, and I hope everything’s all right’,” Steve says. “Next thing I know, my phone’s ringing. It was Matt. His first words were: ‘He’s collapsed, Dad, he’s collapsed’. I said, ‘Who?’. He said, ‘Uncle Mark. He’s on the floor. He’s not breathing’.”
Fans around the upper tier quickly became aware of what was going on.
“About two minutes after the goal, in the 25th minute, I heard Albion fans about 20 rows behind me shouting, ‘Medic!’ and, ‘Help now!’,” says one West Brom supporter, who asked to speak anonymously given the sensitive nature of the incident, but who says they made a mental note of the timings as they work in health and safety.
“I saw two stewards walk up to the area but the cries for help continued. By the 28th minute, I hadn’t seen any paramedics making their way — they would have come past me — so I left my seat. I’d been a first-aider for 27 years.”
When the West Brom supporter arrived, Mark was lying on the floor between the rows of seats. Matt was on the phone to Steve nearby. One female fan, an off-duty paramedic, was leaning over from the row in front. She tested for a pulse. Another male supporter, who identified himself as a doctor, was by Mark’s head, attempting to keep his airway clear.
“He was motionless, and he was in a very poor condition at this point,” says the supporter. “(The off-duty paramedic) identified there wasn’t a pulse, opened his shirt, and started chest compressions.”
By this time, West Brom fans around the Leppings Lane End were chanting for the referee to stop the game, and had been begging stewards for help. On the pitch, video footage shows Sheffield Wednesday captain Barry Bannan approaching referee Ben Toner after 33 minutes and pointing towards the upper tier of the stand.
Barry Bannan talks to referee Ben Toner while pointing at the Leppings Lane End
Ordinary stewards are not usually trained to provide first aid, but several fans reported issues in communicating the incident’s significance.
“We started alerting the stewards at the front of the top tier almost instantly, expecting them to alert anyone that could help,” says one supporter. “But not all the stewards had radios, and some stood there staring at us from six feet away as if we weren’t saying anything. This lasted for a good few minutes.”
“After the incident, I went and reported my concerns (over the delay in treatment) to a Wednesday steward,” says another West Brom fan, Adrian. “He told me: ‘We have checked the video mate, it was four minutes, now shut up, get up there (pointing to where the incident happened) and sit down’.”
One fan ran onto the pitch to get the referee to stop the match, while hundreds of West Brom supporters shouted for help, or held their arms up in an X to signal a medical emergency.
Concerns have been raised over stewarding at Hillsborough on multiple occasions in recent seasons, according to documents from safety advisory group (SAG, the council body that grants Hillsborough’s safety certificate) meetings that were seen by The Athletic following a freedom of information request.
After a game against Rotherham United in October 2023, the pre-match stewards’ briefing and the number of stewards were deemed “inadequate”. A Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA) representative also reported that the club “had the lowest proportion of (Security Industry Authority-standard stewards) of any club he dealt with”.
Describing one local derby against Leeds United in March 2024, before which The Athletic heard distressing testimony of overcrowding outside the away end, the SAG minutes state a concerning detail — that the stewards’ briefing “did not cover emergency procedures”.
The Athletic spoke to 11 witnesses to the incident, and all said that at least nine minutes elapsed between Mark collapsing and the arrival of a club-provided medical response equipped with life-saving equipment in the 34th minute.
The target given to first responders working for the medical company used by Wednesday last season had been for them to be in attendance within two minutes of receiving a call. This season, a new company, Lambda Medical, took over the tender to provide medical services at Hillsborough.
Additionally, according to last season’s medical care plan, two first-aid-trained responders with radios would have been sitting in the upper tier of the stand. The Athletic asked Sheffield Wednesday and Lambda Medical whether this continued to be the case this season, but neither provided a response. No supporter we spoke to reported noticing any official medical staff in the stand until after the incident occurred.
A spokesperson for Lambda Medical said: “This was a tragic incident and Lambda Medical continue to work side by side with all the relevant groups and authorities as part of an ongoing robust review.”
Responding to a question about the alleged delay between collapse and treatment, a spokesperson for Sheffield Wednesday said: “Without compromising the review, it can be confirmed that advanced paramedic care was at the scene applying emergency treatment within three minutes of the control room being notified, just over one minute after the nearest steward was alerted.”
Hillsborough’s Leppings Lane End – Mark Townsend was in the upper tier of the stand (Anna Gowthorpe/PA Images via Getty Images)
But what Wednesday’s statement does not clarify is the gap between Mark collapsing and the control room being notified. According to witnesses, there were difficulties locating stewards with the authority to notify the control room. Typically, only senior stewards carry radios.
“I found a steward who I asked to call a paramedic immediately,” says Adrian, who had been sitting directly behind Mark, describing a period he says was less than five minutes after Mr Townsend collapsed.
“I was clear to her that the man was having a cardiac arrest. She replied that she had no radio or means of communicating with the medics. She added that only her senior supervising steward could call for medical assistance. I asked her where that person was and she did not seem to know, but indicated they were at the lower end of the Leppings Lane End.”
“The steward closest to me wasn’t even looking in the direction of the commotion until we went over to tell him,” adds Hannah, another witness. “He had no radio and basically said there was nothing he could do because he had no way of communicating to someone who could help.”
According to the supporter who was assisting with first aid and making a mental note of the time, they first saw a steward equipped with an earpiece five minutes after the collapse, at the 30-minute mark. That senior steward subsequently spoke into their radio.
The arrival of official responders on 34 minutes, around four minutes after this call, fits with Sheffield Wednesday’s assertion that Mark was receiving life-saving care within four minutes of a steward being alerted. However, the fans nearby say that five minutes had passed between Mark collapsing and a senior steward being in a position to make that call. Wednesday say they have CCTV footage covering that part of the stadium but declined a request to share it so The Athletic could verify the timings.
Two people involved in the treatment have told The Athletic that Mark needed a defibrillator, with chest compressions not bringing any success. According to the Resuscitation Council UK, the chances of survival fall by 10 per cent for every minute that defibrillation is delayed.
“I suggested that I opened up the defibrillator while the paramedic applied the pad to the patient, which we both did,” says the first-aid-trained supporter. “I held the defibrillator on top of the seat because there was nowhere to put it. All the time we continued to give chest compressions.
“The paramedic applied the pads in the 36th minute and a shock was initialised and delivered.”
A second shock was also delivered but “a third shock could not be applied to the patient from the defibrillator because the battery went flat, so a second defibrillator was connected — it was already there.”
Neither Sheffield Wednesday nor Lambda Medical responded when asked who was responsible for ensuring defibrillators are charged.
Around this time, a second supporter collapsed from apparent shock nearby. Several witnesses have said no steward assisted them.
By this time, Mark was approaching 15 minutes without oxygen, going by the supporters’ timings. Mouth-to-mouth was not an option due to his position in the aisle between the seats — effective treatment can only be given from side-on, with the patient on a flat surface. The first official medical responders to reach Mark were not carrying any oxygen system in their bag, according to supporters who were helping with resuscitation efforts.
This is standard practice — typically, first responders would not be expected to administer oxygen for basic life support. Before the season, Lambda Medical advertised for first responders who were ‘FREC 3’ level, which comfortably exceeds the minimum safety requirement for the role.
Instead, oxygen would usually be administered by an on-site team from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS). According to several people involved in trying to save Mark, paramedics from YAS first reached him almost 20 minutes after he collapsed.
YAS did not respond to a request for comment on these timings.
All parties involved accept that this was a complicated and fast-moving situation. Moving Mark to the concourse behind the Leppings Lane End would allow him to receive oxygen — but one person involved says the structure of the stadium made this an additional challenge.
“Shortly before half-time, around the 41st minute, I could see that the paramedics were struggling to get the patient down the stairs with a stretcher,” says the supporter who had assisted with defibrillation.
“This wasn’t because of fans, but because of the narrow aisle between the seats. You have three people either side of the stretcher trying to carry an adult man down the stairs negotiating the chairs behind their knees.
“Then there’s some more stairs to take you through the tunnel to get onto the concourse. The width of the aisles was poor. The width of the tunnel is poor. I left my seat again to help carry the stretcher, because I could see people struggling, and grabbed a handle.
“I’m an average-sized chap, but I felt the stretcher pushing into my pelvis as I was trying to walk, almost becoming trapped between the stretcher and the tunnel. Moving the stretcher was extremely difficult.”
As Mark reached the concourse, just before half-time, eye-witnesses reported being met by paramedics from YAS, who took over life-support and fitted him with an oxygen mask. On-site treatment continued during the break.
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The next call Steve received from Matt was made from a paramedic’s car, which was following the ambulance to Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital. On arrival, doctors continued resuscitation efforts for around another 40 minutes, but to no avail.
“I got a phone call from a private number,” Steve says. “It was a nurse. ‘I’m very sorry, we’ve done everything we can for your brother, but it pains me to say that he’s sadly passed away’.”
Steve called Marion, who was already on the way to Sheffield to see her husband, and a few hours later, he went to his parents’ home to deliver the news. On the Monday, Steve spent two and a half hours with Mark’s colleagues at their workplace.
“One guy he’d known since he was at school just broke down,” he says. “They were supposed to be going for a pint together on the Sunday.”
After the game, a small group of West Brom directors went to the hospital to pay their respects. They were led by CEO Mark Miles, who told Steve that they could not return to the West Midlands without seeing Mark.
Mark Townsend (left) with his brother Steve (Steve Townsend)
A formal review into the incident has begun, led by the SGSA and Sheffield City Council’s SAG, consulting various stakeholders including the club, Lambda Medical, YAS and stewards.
Because of this review, the English Football League is not currently leading an investigation of its own — though it will review the SGSA’s existing protocols for medical emergencies.
One theme raised by supporters was a feeling that the match should have been stopped after Mark’s collapse.
“There must have been 2,000 Albion fans chanting for the game to be stopped,” says the supporter who helped provide life-support. “I understand the stance that it could create more issues, but the medical staff had very little space. We needed to move the crowd away, but the game continuing made that not possible.”
The current SGSA guidance is for the game to continue unless the welfare of the supporter is specifically affected by the continuation of the match, due to factors such as crowd movement in stairwells and concourses. It is up to the home club’s safety officer to make that assessment.
No Albion supporter who witnessed last week’s event at Hillsborough left the ground thinking about West Brom’s 3-2 loss. Nonetheless, the season continues and three days after Mark died, his family were invited to The Hawthorns for the visit of Middlesbrough.
Some supporters paid their respects by tying flowers to the Astle Gates and in the 57th minute — Mark’s age when he died — referee David Webb halted the game to allow players, fans and officials to observe a minute’s applause.
Fans applaud in the 57th minute of West Brom’s game with Middlesbrough (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Marion, Mark’s parents and other family members accepted the club’s invitation to watch from a suite but Steve and Matt chose to return to the Birmingham Road End, where they have season tickets and where Mark’s seat, next to theirs, was left vacant and draped in a West Brom shirt bearing his name. Shilen Patel, the West Brom owner, also personally spoke to Mark’s wife, mother and father.
“We had a good 10 or 20 minutes up there before the gates even opened, chatting and having a cry,” Steve says. “On the way back down, John Homer, the chairman of the supporters’ club, was in the East Stand and he gave the most rousing chorus of The Lord’s My Shepherd (Albion’s traditional terrace anthem). I’d held it together alright up until then but when I heard that, I just burst out crying.
“The Albion have been amazing and I’ve had so many messages from fans of clubs across the country, including Sheffield Wednesday. The football family has been unbelievable.
“But some of the stories I’ve heard from people who were there at Hillsborough have been really upsetting.”
(Top photos: Getty Images; courtesy of Steve Townsend; design: Eamonn Dalton)
