Hillsborough inquests: Liverpool fan tried to stop match

Liverpool fan Joseph Clark shouted at his friend to get him out of the crush at the Hillsborough stadium

A football fan who lost two friends in the Hillsborough disaster tried to stop the match by running onto the pitch after one of them shouted: "Get me out! Get me out!".

David Roberts told the inquests he tried to pull Joseph Clark out of the terrace crush but could not reach him.

He said it was "very difficult to breathe" as the pressure built up.

Mr Clark, 29, and another Liverpool supporter Alan McGlone, 28, were among 96 fans killed in the 1989 crush.

Mr McGlone was a father of two daughters, Amy and Claire.

Alan McGlone, a father-of-two, died in the crush

In a statement written by his wife, Irene, the hearing was told he had "loved being a father" and that "every evening he would bath the girls, put them to bed [and] read them a story."

Mr Clark also had two children, Stephen and Jennifer. He and his partner Jacqueline Gilchrist had lost another son, Joseph, who died when he was six-and-a-half weeks old.

In her statement, Ms Gilchrist said Mr Clark had "lived life to the full."

Ahead of the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989, the jury heard the three friends first went into pen four at the Leppings Lane end of the stadium in Sheffield.

They moved to neighbouring pen three after being "pushed and shoved about", the jury was told.

Mr Roberts said it was a "joint decision" for them to move.

Who were the 96 victims?

BBC News: Profiles of all those who died

Ran on to the pitch

But he said they were still "getting pushed about" in the new enclosure and that the pressure was "building and building up".

Separated from his friends, Mr Roberts was pushed through a open gate which led to the pitch.

He said Mr Clark was "in trouble then. He couldn't move, but he was shouting to me: 'Get me out! Get me out!'"

Mr Roberts ran on to the pitch to speak to the referee in an attempt to stop the match.

Christina Lambert QC, for the coroner, said that "in fact, somebody else stopped the match, didn't they, just at the same time?"

The inquests previously heard a senior officer ended the match at 15:06 BST - six minutes after it kicked off.

The jury saw footage of the two men at the front of pen three.

Mr Clark's brother identified him from a photograph later that day and Mr McGlone's brother Anthony identified his body at 13:00 BST the next day.

The inquests, sitting in Warrington, Cheshire, are due to resume on Tuesday.