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As a proud son of Liverpool, Rickie Lambert has lived with the pain of Hillsborough for 27 years.

So when the West Brom striker on Sunday pays his club’s respects to the 96 lost souls who can finally rest in peace, he knows it’s going to be emotional.

Lambert will join with Baggies’ skipper Darren Fletcher to lay a wreath in front of the travelling Kop housed in the Hawthorns’ Smethwick End.

Ninety-six seats, painted red and carrying the names of those Liverpool fans who were unlawfully killed in 1989, will also remain empty.

And Lambert said: “It’s a classy gesture – and one which I know the Liverpool supporters will appreciate.

(Image: AMA/WBA FC via Getty) (Image: AMA/WBA FC via Getty)

“I get very emotional talking about Hillsborough and there might even be a few tears when I see the red shirts and the fans because I know what the people of Liverpool have been through.

“I’m a Liverpool lad, I grew up supporting the club, and I know how much the shadow of Hillsborough has been hanging over our city for 27 years.

“The people of Liverpool have had their reputations dragged through the dirt and I felt that shame when I was growing up.

“We thought that the whole country were looking at us in disgust – and that was still going on in some quarters up until the verdict was announced.

“Hopefully, perceptions of Liverpool and the people of Liverpool will now start to change.”

Lambert will always remember where he was when the verdict was announced that a jury in Warrington had ruled that the 96 fans had indeed been unlawfully killed.

He said: “I was on my own in my apartment watching the news - and I don’t mind admitting that I got pretty choked up.

“What those families have been through has been horrific, having to come through so many knock backs to finally get justice.

“They were fighting for their loved ones, but what they also did was unite the entire city of Liverpool.

“The families have been proved right and the people of Liverpool have been proved right – and I can’t tell you how good that feels as a Scouser.

“Hopefully those wonderful people can now have some light in their lives after years of being in the darkness.”

(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

Lambert, 34, lived his dream of playing for the club he has supported all his life when he moved to Anfield from Southampton in 2014 in a £4million deal.

It seemed like the perfect end to a career that had began with him being rejected by the club as a schoolboy and was rebuilt in the lower leagues with Blackpool, Macclesfield, Stockport, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers before he helped the Saints return to the Premier League.

Within 12 months, Lambert was sold to West Brom, with most of his 36 appearances in red coming from the substitutes’ bench.

Lambert has his regrets – but they are tinged with the knowledge that he beat all the odds to forge a career that has also seen him win 11 England caps and play at the World Cup.

He said: “I knew when I signed for Liverpool that I wasn’t going be a regular starter and that I was going to be an alternative option behind Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge.

“Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have accepted that. If it hadn’t have been Liverpool then I probably wouldn’t have made the move.

“But I couldn’t turn them down because it was my club.

“This was Liverpool. It’s the club I have always loved. Perhaps I should have thought about it more, but my heart ruled my head and I don’t think that is such a bad thing.

“It would be easy now for me to say that I wouldn’t move to Liverpool if I had the decision to make again, but I can’t.

(Image: Getty)

“It didn’t work out. But I have worn that red shirt, I have scored goals for my club. When I was a kid growing up, that’s what I dreamed about, so it’s hard to have regrets.”

Lambert, by his own admission, has not done himself justice at West Brom this season and he plans to assess his situation in the summer.

But he remains an example of a footballer who refused to be beaten, fighting his way up from the bottom to the very pinnacle of the English game.

He was delighted to see Leicester striker Jamie Vardy named FWA Footballer of the Year last week after travelling a similar journey.

Lambert said: “I’ve been saying for years that there are some very talented footballers in the lower divisions and even in non-league.

“I came through the hard way and so did players like Charlie Austin, Glenn Murray and Grant Holt.

“Now Jamie is writing a story that is even more incredible, winning the Premier League with Leicester, playing for England, and being named Footballer of the Year.

(Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty)

“I voted him to win the PFA award as well because he has absolutely smashed it this season, scoring so many goals and beating Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record of scoring in successive games.

“Hopefully the fear factor on buying players from outside the Premier League has finally gone.

“Attitudes are slowly changing, but I still think clubs would rather spend £10million on a foreign player than invest the money on a player in the lower leagues. It’s still seen as a massive gamble.

“I don’t understand why. A lot of talent has been lost. I’ve seen players who, like me, were good enough to step up, but they didn’t get a chance. I was one of the lucky ones.”

Lambert added: “There were times when I was scoring 30 goals a season and still wasn’t getting a look in. It does dishearten you.

(Image: PA)

“It makes you think you must not be good enough, that the Premier League is beyond you, and if I hadn’t been mentally strong enough and hungry enough then my career could have easily been spent entirely in the lower divisions.

“Thankfully I kept going. I knew I was good enough to play at the top.

“I will always treasure the time I have spent playing for Southampton, Liverpool and West Brom, and being capped by England was the pinnacle, but I actually believe that the peak years of my career were spent outside the Premier League.

“I played over 300 games in League One or below and then I went off like a firework.

“I accept it wasn’t just down to managers not picking me. I know that my professionalism could have been better when I was younger.

“I wasn’t taught how to look after myself properly and if I could take myself back I would be much better prepared because I know the benefits of training well and living well.”

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