With great thanks to John, the series of the exclusive Villa Chronicle’s for this blog are over with the ultimate entry. I do hope though John will hopefully still contribute occasional articles.

The start of the season found a re-energised Tony Morley. He had not previously taken on board his manager’s requirement for his players to be committed in an all-round way, but Morley was now finding his feet. His performances were now helping to convert the Villa into a formidable unit, particularly now he had a big target man to aim at in Peter Withe.

Villa fan Steve Ford wrote the following which precisely encapsulates some significant and wonderful points about the Villa’s championship side that season:

“Ron Saunders had remodelled the side around more workmanlike players, seemingly less dashing than those they replaced, and his final jigsaw piece was an ageing target man with a penchant for giving referees the full benefit of his vast Liverpudlian vocabulary.
“But Peter Withe, what a player; dominant in the air, lay-offs with chest, thigh, foot – always falling to the quicksilver Gary Shaw or the scurrying Tony Morley. In midfield, Denis Mortimer and Des Bremner the stokers of the engine room, feeding the blessed talents of the seemingly fragile yet wirily determined ‘Sid’ Cowans.
“In defence, the controlled brutality of Ken McNaught and converted centre-forward Allan Evans ensured that most attacks faltered without breaching the Claret and Blue battlements and allowed marauding runs from wingers-turned-full-backs Colin Gibson and Kenny Swain.
“A shiver passes up my spine even now as I imagine a crunching tackle from Evans, the loose ball liberated by Mortimer who slips the ball to Sid to ping a searching pass to the chest of Withe who lays it off to Shaw, he picks out Morley who throws a shoulder inside the full-back before hurtling past on the outside. He looks up before launching a high cross to the far post where Withe awaits, sweatband-clad arms balancing the huge frame in the air before dispatching another unstoppable header past yet another helpless keeper.”

After the Boxing Day programme, Liverpool and Villa were separated only by the greater number of goals that Liverpool had scored – both teams were on 33 points (it was the last season when a win gained only 2 points) and both had a goal difference of 19. One point behind, Bobby Robson’s Ipswich also had a goal difference of 19, and they had played two games less!

Prior to Boxing Day, the Villa had been faltering after an 11-match unbeaten league spell in the Autumn, but the Villa side that eventually grabbed the title did so with great panache. Having lost disappointingly at Ipswich in the FA Cup by 0-1 on 3 January, the Villa girdled their loins for the league title and in the next match they impressively defeated Liverpool 2-0 to take the lead in the championship and start a great run of seven successive wins, in the process scoring 13 goals against 4. Included in that run was a fine 3-1 win at Everton, when Morley scored the first goal with a blistering shot from outside the penalty area. After a speedy run from the half-way line and down the left, Morley cut inside to unleash an unstoppable shot full of venom.

It was a goal that rightly became the BBC’s ‘Goal of the Season’ on their ‘Match of the Day’ programme.

The winning run was ended (but not by defeat) when Manchester United paid their visit to Villa Park. A 3-3 scoreline was the outcome after a glorious match, the very same result as at Old Trafford earlier that season.
Defeat at Spurs in the next match ended a run of 10 league games undefeated since the Boxing Day win over Stoke, but the Spurs match in turn precipitated a further 3 straight wins before what was thought to be the crucial mid-week encounter with challengers Ipswich at Villa Park. The result of that match went to Ipswich, and with Ipswich being one point behind with one game in hand, the national press claimed that Bobby Robson’s Ipswich would take the title. But even with only four matches left, the Villa had other ideas, and Ipswich also slipped at the final hurdles; Villa took the title despite their final game at Arsenal ending in defeat.

No doubt about it, the Villa faced tremendous opposition in those Ipswich and Liverpool sides, and in finishing with 26 wins in a long season of 42 matches, including a double win over Birmingham City, the Villa had deserved their triumph.

Sadly, the economic recession then taking place had its affect on the turnout at Villa Park. Though the ground limit had been set to 48,000 for safety reasons, the average attendance was little over 33,500 to see Villa gain their first championship in 71 years.

Villa’s achievement was based on a season of super-consistent teamwork and availability of key players, seven of which were ever-present. Only 14 players were used during the whole of the season.

The international selectors were happy to select Morley and Withe in preparation for the 1982 World Cup, but it took awhile for the skills of the likes of Cowans and Evans to be appreciated. Other key players—including Bremner and Mortimer—went unrewarded.

As for the ‘Wunderkid’ Gary Shaw, his career would ultimately turn much the same way as the unfortunate Brian Little. Both these sublimely talented and home-grown players were prematurely retired from the game.

© 2010 John Lerwill