Southall kept a clean sheet at Wembley in the 1984 FA Charity Shield, as Everton beat Liverpool 1–0 to take home the first silverware of the 1984–85 season. They then lost the opening two league games of the season, before losing only three of their next 37 league games to win the First Division title by a 13-point margin. Over the course of the season they beat Liverpool both at Anfield and at Goodison, and recorded a 5–0 win over Manchester United. Southall made one particularly crucial save from a point-blank Mark Falco header in a 2–1 win over title chasers Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on 3 April. In the European Cup Winners' Cup, Everton beat UCD (Ireland), Inter Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), Fortuna Sittard (Netherlands), and Bayern Munich (Germany) in two-legged encounters, and Southall conceded just the one goal (from Dieter Hoeneß) over the course of all eight matches. They then beat Austrian club Rapid Wien 3–1 in the final at De Kuip to win the first European title in the club's history. Three days later Everton played in the 1985 FA Cup Final, but lost 1–0 to Manchester United after a Norman Whiteside goal in extra-time. At the end of the season Southall was named as the FWA Footballer of the Year, becoming only the first Everton player, second Welshman and fourth goalkeeper to win the award.