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After the inspiring, enduring – and ultimately vindicated - heroism displayed by the Hillsborough families, after many years of an entire region's reputation being cruelly traduced – and after a decades-long fight for justice in the face of establishment indifference, I thought we had seen an end to small-minded prejudice towards Liverpool Football Club and its fans.

Think again.

A 53-year-old Liverpool supporter lies in hospital in a critical condition, the subject of an assault, allegedly by two Roma supporters.

Yet in a vile, presumptuous and repugnant article published on today's Daily Express website the writer, Colin Mafham, appears to infer that Liverpool brought such trouble upon themselves.

We shouldn't be surprised.

We've heard those kind of historic prejudices before, but thought they went out of fashion with The Spectator's notorious 'self pity city.'

Sadly not.

Under the headline “Liverpool must take serious action after Roma violence or risk further trouble” Mafham, in a spectacular display of generalisation, wrote: “Why does trouble seem to follow them (Liverpool fans) like bees round a honey pot?”

After praising Liverpool's performance on the pitch on Tuesday he adds: “It's not the players who produced that performance who I have an issue with, it's some of the people who 'follow' them that frighten the living daylights out of me.

“You would have thought the deaths of 39 Italians at the European Cup final Liverpool lost to Juventus in 1985 - plus the five year ban on English clubs that consequently came after that - would have had a sobering effect.

“You would have thought the horrors at Hillsborough and 96 more deaths that followed only four years later would have made everyone more aware of their responsibilities to each other.

“Those two tragedies, in which the central figures were sadly mostly from Liverpool, are arguably football's most painful Achilles and hopefully will never happen again.”

Once again the two very different tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough are lumped shamelessly together.

Heysel was a criminal act for which 14 Liverpool fans were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and seven served jail sentences.

Hillsborough was wholly different – a tragedy in which it took 28 years for a jury to rule what really happened: that 96 Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed in a disaster that Reds supporters were judged to have played no role in causing.

Yet, in an astonishing leap of imagination, Mafham muses: “So why do I fear that the latest generation of that club's supporters could well add another chapter to England's footballing book of condolences?”

The 'evidence' for such fear appears to come from the attack on the Manchester City team bus three weeks ago, actions immediately denounced by Liverpool Football Club and which resulted in the immediate action of a change of bus route with increased policing.

The arrival of Roma's team bus on Tuesday was trouble-free.

Yet Mafham asks: “We know where the empty bottles came from, but where the heck did they get those fire flares that were thrown at the Manchester City and Roma team buses? You couldn't bring them through customs the last time I looked.”

If that was factually incorrect, what followed was just plain offensive.

He enquires: “And why is a 53-year-old man now seemingly fighting for his life, and two Italians being held on suspicion of attempted murder, before a football match involving Liverpool?

“When you have a team capable of playing the joyous football Liverpool have for most of this season, how on earth are their fans always seemingly involved in such horrific altercations on big European nights.”

If you search for the term 'fire flares' you learn that they can be bought freely in this country.

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A 53-year-old man is fighting for his life because he was allegedly attacked. A 20-year-old Italian has been charged with GBH.

And does two unrelated tragedies 33 and 29 years ago really amount to “always seemingly involved in such horrific altercations?”

For the record, nine men were arrested on Tuesday night, five from Italy – all for violence related offences or possession of offensive weapons – one man was from Ealing, one from Thurrock and two men were from Merseyside; one was arrested for being drunk and disorderly, the other for cocaine possession.

“No one is suggesting that the violence that erupted on Tuesday night was solely the fault of Liverpool fans,” Mafham eventually adds. “Their visitors from Rome were clearly just as thuggish, and just as frightening.

“But there are suggestions that the reputation of Liverpool supporters had gone before them and Roman yobs had simply decided to get in first, and with such awful consequences. It's not right, but it does again highlight a common denominator.”

It is a common denominator perpetuated by writers like Colin Mafham.

He concludes: “That's why I urge Liverpool Football Club to condemn, rather than giving succour to excuses like 'it's society's problem' and 'all the world's against us.'”

Here we go. Let's flashback to 1989 all over again and Self Pity City.

But Mafham saves his piece de resistance for his conclusion.

“The club needs to recognise it has a big problem - and has had for some years - and proactively support and work with those whose job it is to preserve law and order.

“If they don't then there is a very real danger that revenge will be sought by both sides when they meet in Rome for the second leg on May 2, and all hell could break loose again.

“And if that happens we will all be losers, on and off the field.”

During the time it's taken me to write this article, the Daily Express deleted one paragraph from Mafham's article, then took the whole piece down.

Maybe he realises that Liverpool HAVE been working proactively and supporting those whose job it is to preserve law and order for years.

Or maybe he just accepts he was hopelessly wrong.