# 1981–82 Aston Villa F.C. season

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.
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, 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 |

## First Division
### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | 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 |
| 12 | Nottingham Forest | 42 | 15 | 12 | 15 | 42 | 48 | −6 | 57 | |
| 13 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 42 | 13 | 13 | 16 | 43 | 52 | −9 | 52 | |
* ↑ Aston Villa qualified for the European Cup first round as the 1981–82 European Cup winners.

## 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 | Bernd Schulz |
| 8 | Rainer Ernst |
| 9 | Hans-Jürgen Riediger |
| 10 | Wolf-Rüdiger Netz |
| 11 | Ralf Sträßer |
| Manager: ||||
| Jürgen Bogs ||||
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 | 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 |
| 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 | 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

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.