1981–82 Aston Villa F.C. season explained

See main article: History of Aston Villa F.C. (1961–present).

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

First Division

League table

European Cup

First round

First leg

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

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

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

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

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

DYNAMO KIEV:
1
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[4]
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

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
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
Manager:
Valeri Lobanovsky

Villa won 2–0 on aggregate.

Semi-final

First leg

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

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

See main article: 1982 European Cup final.

See also

• List of Aston Villa F.C. records and statistics

Notes and References

1. Ward, Adam, p. 124
2. Web site: 2021-09-16 . 40 years on: Villa begin European Cup campaign v Valur . 2024-04-09 . Aston Villa Football Club.
3. Web site: Berliner FC Dynamo 1-2 Aston Villa, 1981-82 European Cup, 21 Oct 1981. AVFC History.
4. Web site: FC Dynamo Kyiv 0-0 Aston Villa, 1981-82 European Cup, 3 Mar 1982. AVFC History.