"It was so long ago yet it is still so vivid."

Andy Morgan was just about to enter his teenage years when the Hillsborough tragedy unfolded. It still resonates with him today - the memory of his dad phoning around family to find out whether his uncles were safe, of skipping school to get the bus to Anfield and tying his Everton scarf to a rail on the Kop.

Thirty-four years later he is now employed by the club he loves. As lead gardener at the Finch Farm training ground his job is essentially to tend and oversee everything at the huge site that does not get worn through the bounce of a football or the tread of boot studs.

It is this role, and the continued presence of the Hillsborough disaster in his mind, that combined to give him the instinct for a poignant and touching gesture that has earned him justified credit from both halves of the city.

READ MORE: Hillsborough: The devastating failure of British justice

READ MORE: Everton reveal touching gesture to Hillsborough victims inside Finch Farm

"It started off as an idea to get some colour, of doing a nice bed at Finch Farm and getting some colour in," Andy said. "The general idea was to do it in the shape of Prince Rupert’s Tower. So we prepared it all and then as the flowers started coming through we saw there was more red than any other colour. I thought ‘hang on a minute’."

The wildflower bed Andy and his team was creating sits on a hill overlooking several of the pitches, including some used by the first team for training. It was empty space, a steep slope David Moyes had tasked his players with running up as part of their drills while he was manager but which had barely been touched - other than for the grass that covers it to be cut - in the years since. A vibrant flower bed would be a focal point that would likely be picked up in the background of club training videos and pictures and, aware of this, Andy feared a red-infused patch could lead to him being accused of being a secret Liverpool FC supporter.

The 47-year-old explained: "I never thought there would be any attention on this, maybe other than a photograph that might appear in the matchday programme to show what is being done at Finch Farm to create a bit of colour, and I thought: ‘I can’t have all that red in there because my life wouldn’t be worth living. I’d be going to the match and people would say, ‘why have you put all that red in there’. All of my mates who are Liverpool fans would be calling me a secret Red - and I am not."

As Andy set about addressing the issue, he scanned the patch for the poppies that had become the dominant flower in a part of Merseyside that is unequivocally Blue. It was at this point he was struck by an idea. He said: "I thought what if I just leave 97 in as a tribute to Hillsborough? That was the thought process, that it could be a Hillsborough memorial. I thought it would be a nice touch."

And so the painstaking but meaningful process that would become a regular task of his summer begun, Andy removing poppy after poppy but never leaving fewer than 97 in place - a flower in tribute to each of the 97 innocent men, women and children who were unlawfully killed as a result of the tragedy that unfolded in the terrace allocated to Liverpool supporters for the club’s 1989 FA Cup semi-final with Nottingham Forest.

It was a tribute the dad, from Bootle, was happy to commit to. For years he has attended services and memorials for the 97, their loved ones and survivors, and backed the campaign for justice and accountability over the disaster. He told the ECHO: "I’ve got friends who are Reds and family who are Reds. A couple of my uncles were at Hillsborough. They weren’t in the Leppings Lane end but I remember my dad frantically on the phone phoning family to ask, ‘have you heard from them?’ I always remembered that as a kid and that stuck in my mind and always has. After the tragedy I went to Anfield as a kid and put my scarf on the Kop and went to the memorial services… I just thought this was a nice touch."

It was a powerful act that led to Andy receiving praise from supporters of both clubs - and his uncles - after a video profiling the work of the Finch Farm grounds staff was released online by Everton earlier this summer. The same feature also gave a platform for Andy to talk about his care for the wildlife around the Halewood complex and hopes of creating areas among it to give staff the opportunity for moments of quiet reflection.

His own reflection on that April day just over 30 years ago has already provided strength and inspiration to an audience well beyond those he works alongside. Andy said: "We are a city and what I like about us as a city is that we stick together, we come together in difficult times."