1981-82 AVFC

Second City Derby
	38--28--25
	← 1980–81 1982–83 →

Aston Villa
1981–82 season
	Aston Villa celebrating their historic European Cup victory
Chairman	Ron Bendall
Manager	(1) Ron Saunders ; (2) Tony Barton
Stadium	Villa Park
First Division	11th
FA Cup	Fifth round
League Cup	Fifth round
European Cup	Winners
Top goalscorer	League: ; Peter Withe (10 goals); All: ; Peter Withe (13 goals)
	← 1980–81 1982–83 →

The 1981–82 English football season was Aston Villa's 82nd season in the Football League. In May 1982, just three months after being appointed manager, Tony Barton guided Villa to a 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Rotterdam. As of December 2023, Villa remain one of only six English teams to have won the European Cup, along with Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. They were the underdogs in the final and were expected to lose.^[1]

As defending First Division champions for the first time in 71 years, they qualified for the European Cup for the first time in their history. Their first game in the competition was against Valur of Iceland,^[2] following by a second round clash with BFC Dynamo of East Germany, Dynamo Kiev of the Soviet Union in the quarter-finals and then Anderlecht of Belgium in the semi-finals before beating Bayern Munich of West Germany 1–0 in the Final in Rotterdam, with Peter Withe scoring the winning goal.

The season began with Ron Saunders, who had been the club's manager since 1974, still in charge, but he resigned on 9 February 1982 following a disagreement with the board over his contract. He had been in charge for nearly eight years, winning a league title and two League Cups in the process. His successor was his assistant manager Tony Barton, who had been in charge for three months by the time Villa won the European Cup.

First-team squad

Squad at end of season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	ENG	Jimmy Rimmer
16	GK	ENG	Nigel Spink
2	DF	ENG	Kenny Swain
—	DF	ENG	Colin Gibson
—	DF	ENG	Brendan Ormsby
—	DF	ENG	Mark Jones
—	DF	ENG	Pat Heard
3	DF	ENG	Gary Williams
5	DF	SCO	Ken McNaught
4	DF	SCO	Allan Evans
—	DF	IRL	Eamon Deacy


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ENG	Ivor Linton
11	MF	ENG	Tony Morley
—	MF	ENG	Dennis Mortimer
—	MF	ENG	Mark Walters
10	MF	ENG	Gordon Cowans
—	MF	ENG	Paul Birch
—	MF	ENG	Andy Blair
7	MF	SCO	Des Bremner
9	FW	ENG	Peter Withe
8	FW	ENG	Gary Shaw
—	FW	ENG	David Geddis
—	FW	IRL	Terry Donovan^[3]

First Division

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
9	West Ham United	42	14	16	12	66	57	+9	58
10	Manchester City	42	15	13	14	49	50	−1	58
11	Aston Villa	42	15	12	15	55	53	+2	57	Qualification for the European Cup first round^[a]
12	Nottingham Forest	42	15	12	15	42	48	−6	57
13	Brighton & Hove Albion	42	13	13	16	43	52	−9	52

Source: World Football
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
Notes:

^ Aston Villa qualified for the European Cup first round as the 1981–82 European Cup winners.

European Cup

First round

First leg

1981-09-16

Aston Villa	5–0	Valur
Morley 6' Withe 37', 68' Donovan 40', 69'

Villa Park, Birmingham

Attendance: 20,481

Referee:


ASTON VILLA:
1	Jimmy Rimmer
2	Kenny Swain
3	Colin Gibson
4	Allan Evans
5	Brendan Ormsby
6	Dennis Mortimer
7	Des Bremner
8	Terry Donovan
9	Peter Withe
10	Gordon Cowans
11	Tony Morley
Manager:
Ron Saunders


VALUR:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Manager: Volker Hofferbert

Second leg

1981-09-30

Valur	0–2	Aston Villa
		Shaw 25', 70'

Reykjavík

Attendance: 3,500

Referee:


VALUR:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Manager: Volker Hofferbert


ASTON VILLA:
1	Jimmy Rimmer
2	Kenny Swain
3	Colin Gibson
4	Allan Evans
5	Brendan Ormsby
6	Dennis Mortimer
7	Des Bremner
8	Gary Shaw
9	Peter Withe
10	Gordon Cowans
11	Andy Blair
Manager:
Ron Saunders

Villa won 7–0 on aggregate.

Second round

First leg

1981-10-21

BFC Dynamo	1–2	Aston Villa
Riediger 50'		Morley 5', 85'

Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark, East Berlin

Attendance: 25,000

Referee:


BFC DYNAMO:
1	Bodo Rudwaleit
2	Artur Ullrich
3	Michael Noack
4	Rainer Troppa
5	Norbert Trieloff
6	Frank Terletzki
7	Bernd Schulz
8	Rainer Ernst
9	Hans-Jürgen Riediger
10	Wolf-Rüdiger Netz
11	Ralf Sträßer
Manager:
Jürgen Bogs^[4]


ASTON VILLA:
1	Jimmy Rimmer
2	Gary Williams
3	Colin Gibson
4	Allan Evans
5	Brendan Ormsby
6	Dennis Mortimer
7	Des Bremner
8	Gary Shaw
9	Peter Withe
10	Gordon Cowans
11	Tony Morley
Manager:
Ron Saunders

Second leg

1981-11-04

Aston Villa	0–1	BFC Dynamo
		Terletzki 15'

Villa Park, Birmingham

Attendance: 28,175

Referee:


ASTON VILLA:
1	Jimmy Rimmer
2	Kenny Swain
3	Colin Gibson
4	Allan Evans
5	Gary Williams
6	Dennis Mortimer
7	Des Bremner
8	Gary Shaw
9	Peter Withe
10	Gordon Cowans
11	Tony Morley
Manager:
Ron Saunders


BFC DYNAMO:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Manager:
Jürgen Bogs

2–2 on aggregate. Villa won on away goals rule.

Quarter final

First leg

1982-03-03

Dynamo Kiev	0–0	Aston Villa

Kiev

Attendance: 20,000

Referee:


DYNAMO KIEV:
1	Viktor Chanov
2	Anatoliy Demyanenko
3	Sergiy Zhuravlev
4	Volodymyr Lozynskyi
5	Sergiy Baltacha
6	Volodymyr Bezsonov
7	Andriy Bal
8	Volodymyr Veremeyev
9	Leonid Buryak
10	Oleg Blokhin
11	Viktor Khlus^[5]
Manager:
Valeri Lobanovsky


ASTON VILLA:
1	Jimmy Rimmer
2	Kenny Swain
3	Gary Williams
4	Des Bremner
5	Ken McNaught
6	Dennis Mortimer
7	Andy Blair
8	Gary Shaw
9	Peter Withe
10	Gordon Cowans
11	Tony Morley
Manager:
Tony Barton

Second leg

1982-03-17

Aston Villa	2–0	Dynamo Kiev
Shaw 4' McNaught 44'

Villa Park, Birmingham

Attendance: 38,579

Referee:


ASTON VILLA:
1	Jimmy Rimmer
2	Kenny Swain
3	Gary Williams
4	Allan Evans
5	Ken McNaught
6	Dennis Mortimer
7	Des Bremner
8	Gary Shaw
9	Peter Withe
10	Gordon Cowans
11	Tony Morley
Manager:
Tony Barton


DYNAMO KIEV:
1	Viktor Chanov
2	Anatoliy Demyanenko
3	Sergiy Zhuravlev
4	Volodymyr Lozynskyi
5	Sergiy Baltacha
6	Andriy Bal
7	Oleksandr Boyko
8	Volodymyr Veremeyev
9	Vadym Yevtushenko
10	Oleg Blokhin
11	Viktor Khlus
Manager:
Valeri Lobanovsky

Villa won 2–0 on aggregate.

Semi-final

First leg

1982-04-07

Aston Villa	1–0	Anderlecht
Morley 27'

Villa Park, Birmingham

Referee:


ASTON VILLA:
1	Jimmy Rimmer
2	Kenny Swain
3	Gary Williams
4	Allan Evans
5	Ken McNaught
6	Dennis Mortimer
7	Des Bremner
8	Gary Shaw
9	Peter Withe
10	Gordon Cowans
11	Tony Morley
Manager:
Tony Barton


ANDERLECHT:
1	Jacky Munaron
2	Luka Peruzovic
3	Hugo Broos
4	Juan Lozano
5	Michel De Groote
6	Franky Vercauteren
7	Walter De Greef
8	Michel Renquin
9	Pétur Pétursson
10	Ludo Coeck
11	Albert Cluytens
Manager:
Tomislav Ivić

Second leg

1982-04-21

Anderlecht	0–0	Aston Villa

Émile Versé Stadium,

Referee:


ANDERLECHT:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Manager:
Tomislav Ivić


ASTON VILLA:
1	Jimmy Rimmer
2	Kenny Swain
3	Gary Williams
4	Allan Evans
5	Ken McNaught
6	Dennis Mortimer
7	Des Bremner
8	Gary Shaw
9	Peter Withe
10	Gordon Cowans
11	Tony Morley
Manager:
Tony Barton

Villa won 1–0 on aggregate.

Final

1982-05-26

Aston Villa	1–0	Bayern Munich
Withe 67'

Feijenoord Stadion, Rotterdam

Attendance: 39,776

Referee: Georges Konrath

References

^ Ward, Adam, p. 124
^ "40 years on: Villa begin European Cup campaign v Valur". Aston Villa Football Club. 16 September 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
^ Donovan was born in Liverpool, England, but qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally and made his international debut for the Republic of Ireland in 1979.
^ https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/3656
^ https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/3683

[table_note_res_EC1RC0.38392002945017-4] Aston Villa qualified for the European Cup first round as the 1981–82 European Cup winners.

[1] Ward, Adam, p. 124

[2] "40 years on: Villa begin European Cup campaign v Valur". Aston Villa Football Club. 16 September 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2024.

[3] Donovan was born in Liverpool, England, but qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally and made his international debut for the Republic of Ireland in 1979.

[5] ttps://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/3656

[6] ttps://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/3683

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1981–82 season
Aston Villa celebrating their historic European Cup victory
Chairman	Ron Bendall
Manager	(1) Ron Saunders (2) Tony Barton
Stadium	Villa Park
First Division	11th
FA Cup	Fifth round
League Cup	Fifth round
European Cup	Winners
Top goalscorer	League: Peter Withe (10 goals) All: Peter Withe (13 goals)
← 1980–81 1982–83 →

First-team squad