Welcome to Glory Days, a new 90MAAT feature series that looks at the greatest season in the history of each Premier League club.
When selecting the season for each club, we take into account several factors. While a club’s best season will obviously be typified by success, we don’t choose simply based on the quality of the team or the number of trophies won.
The season we choose will usually be a campaign referred to by fans of the club as something akin to “glory days”, the times when it was great to be a fan of the club when timeless memories were made.
While Arsenal’s greatest season was a fairly obvious pick, ranking the greatest season in the history of Aston Villa is more difficult.
A founder member of the Football League, the Villans have been League and FA Cup champions seven times each, with eight of those trophies coming in a fruitful spell at the end of the 19th century including the double-winning season of 1896/87.
That campaign was one of three that we considered, the other two being their most recent top-flight title in 1980/81 and the following season in which they won the European Cup. Villa fans can proudly look back on all three seasons, but we believe that the memories of their last English top-flight title make 1980/81 Aston Villa’s greatest ever season.
As always, feel free to disagree. Whether you’re a Villa fan or not, we’d love to hear which season you think is the greatest in their history.
League: Division 1 – Champions
Having finished 7th the season before, Aston Villa fans approached the 1980/81 season with optimism, but not expectation. Since winning promotion to the top flight in 1975, the Villans had finished in the top 10 for four consecutive years and even won the League Cup in 1977.
While Cup wins were a fairly common fixture of Villa’s recent history at that point, league titles were not. 1980 marked 70 years since they last won the top flight, with few fans of the first era alive to see them end that run in the coming season.
They began in conservative fashion, winning three of their opening six games, before embarking on a 12 game unbeaten run, including nine wins as they kept pace with the likes of Liverpool and Ipswich Town at the business end of the table.
As the season wore on, Liverpool faded and the title race became a two-horse race. Ipswich enjoyed deep runs in both the FA Cup; in which they knocked out Villa in the 3rd round, and the UEFA Cup, which they went on to win. Villa had only the league to focus on but seemed consigned to second place when Ipswich beat them at Villa Park to seize the initiative with only a handful of games to play.
It was not to last however, and Villa eventually finished four points ahead of their rivals (it was still two points for a win) at the end of the season.
The celebrations were wild. Aston Villa were at the top of the English game for the first time in over 70 years. They had also toppled both the European Champions (Liverpool) and the UEFA Cup winners (Ipswich).
Despite solid foundations in place for a sustained challenge at elite level, it proved to be Villa’s most recent league triumph. Though they usurped Liverpool once again by winning the European Cup the following season, they finished 11th in the league and would suffer relegation to Division 2 before the 80s were over. As of the start of 2019/20, it has been 39 years since Villa were Champions of England, will they ever do it again?
The Squad
Managed by Ron Saunders (who became a Villa hero before going on to manage bitter rivals Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion), Villa had assembled an impressive squad. They used only 14 players in the league across the whole season, seven of whom played in all 42 games.
Much was expected of striker Peter Withe, who was signed in the 1980 off-season for £500,000, a huge sum in those days. Withe repaid the faith with 20 league goals, finishing joint top scorer with Spurs’ Steve Archibald.
Packed with experience and youth, the established first choice 11 consisted of keeper Jimmy Rimmer, defenders Allan Evans, Ken McNaught, Kenny Swain and one of Colin Gibson and Gary Williams, midfielders Des Bremner, Gordon Cowans and Dennis Mortimer, and forwards Withe, Gary Shaw and Tony Morley.
Withe was by no means Villa’s only goalscorer over the campaign, with Shaw and Morley providing a combined 28 league goals while Evans bagged seven from the back.
Rimmer, McNaught, Swain, Bremner, Cowans, Mortimer and Morley appeared in all 42 League fixtures, while Villa made only eight substitutions over the whole campaign.
Cup competitions
Not much to shout about here. While Villa’s league exploits rightly drew plaudits and won honours, they won only one Cup tie in 1980/81.
The Villans beat Leeds home and away in round two of the League Cup before going down to second-tier Cambridge United in their third-round single-leg clash. They would play just a single game in the FA Cup in January, bowing out to League rivals Ipswich Town at Portman Road.
That proved to be the Villans only exploits in knockout football in 80/81, having not qualified for Europe the previous year. It is very possible that had Villa enjoyed a lengthy cup run, their thin squad would have struggled to manage the league alongside it, but we’ll never know…
Low point
While losing to lower league opposition in the cup always carries an element of embarrassment, Villa’s September League Cup exit to Cambridge United was quickly forgotten by fans as their side mounted a challenge in the league.
Instead, the low point of the season ultimately came in April, when with four games left, Villa went down 2-1 at home to Ipswich to seemingly hand the title to their rivals.
Having lost just once at home in the league all season, the Villans went into the game knowing a draw or better would keep them in pole position in the title race. Expectations were high but were dashed by the impressive Tractor Boys.
It appeared Villa’s 71-year wait for a league title would be extended. While the season was by no means over after this game, many believed that Villa had thrown away one of the best chances they would ever get at ending that run.
Football is a game of huge emotion and had this game not invoked such terrible feeling at Villa Park in April, the Villans would likely not have had as much of a euphoric high that was to follow less than a month later.
High Point
Unsurprisingly, the high point of Aston Villa’s season is the moment they won the title. Ironically, that moment was confirmed with a 2-0 loss to Arsenal. Unlike modern seasons, not every side was playing their final game at the same time. In this case, both Villa and Ipswich were in action, but Ipswich had a game still to be played in a week’s time.
Villa started the day four points ahead, but with an inferior goal difference. With two points for a win, the Villans knew that a draw at Arsenal would be enough to seal the title, but that a loss would leave the door ajar for Ipswich if they were to win both of their remaining games.
At half time, it looked like a nightmare scenario for Villa. They went in 1-0 down against the Gunners, who were unbeaten at home all season, while Ipswich were 1-0 up at Middlesbrough. Villa were unable to respond in their match, but were spared by a marvellous comeback by Boro, who won 2-1 to send the title to Villa Park.
Roundup
Aston Villa famously went on to win the European Cup the following season, and while fans can rightly regard that as the club’s greatest ever achievement, perhaps even moment, the season was far from plain sailing otherwise.
Their title defence was all but over by Christmas, and manager Ron Saunders resigned in February after a disagreement with the club’s board. Lifting the European Cup was an incredible achievement, but the season as a whole was difficult.
The title win of 80/81 gathered momentum over the season and created a brilliant buzz around the club all the while. No doubt, if Villa get close to another title we will see similar emotions return.
