The story begins in the Summer of 1982,  with Aston Villa reigning European Champions and Italy winning the World Cup for the 3rd time. Little did the fans know but this would be the beginning of the slow break up of team that won in Rotterdam. The club would face difficult times; not just the Villa, but the whole game of English Football was in crisis, with finances and crowd trouble. We take a look at the next 5 years of Aston Villa, where things would turn upside down.

Champions Of Europe

Aston Villa went into 1982-83 season as European Cup holders with World Club and European Super Cup Final to look forward to throughout the season. They would be joined for the second successive season in European Cup by Liverpool who had reclaimed their league title after its 12 months residence at Villa Park.

This season began like the last one, with a surprising defeat at home, this time at hands of Sunderland (3-1). Villa would lose their first three games of the season, in a month which would see the departure of the first member of the 1982 European cup team.

Kenny Swain left for Nottingham Forest, as Gary Williams was being preferred as right back with Colin Gibson on the left.

The league form quickly turned around just in time for Aston Villa to begin their defence of the European Cup in unusual circumstances.

Behind Closed Doors

Due to a minority of Villa fans causing trouble in the Semi-Final of the previous season in Anderlecht, Uefa had ordered that our  opening home game should be played behind closed doors. An attendance of only 167 saw the game, mainly officials and journalists. Villa began against Turkish side Besiktas and started strongly, as at the same stage last season.

Villa raced into a 3-0 lead with goals from Peter Withe, Tony Morley and Dennis Mortimer in the first half hour. Besiktas grew in confidence and grabbed an away goal, meaning Villa had work to do in Turkey in the return leg. 

The second leg, Villa held strong and gain 0-0 draw to comfortably progress into the second round.

The Form Of His Life

The next opponents were Dinamo Bucharest from Romania and it was tricky assignment, with the first leg away. Well not too difficult for the Villa nor for Gary Shaw, who was having the time of his life. His two goals in the 1st leg gave Villa a priceless 2-0 win and gave us one foot in the Quarter-Finals.

Shaw went one better in the second leg and became the first Aston Villa player to score a hat-trick any in European competition. These 5 goals in the two legs were amongst 24 he scored that season, sadly this was good as it got for Shaw.

The other Aston Villa goal was scored by another outstanding youngster who progressed into senior the team. Mark Walters, who would play a vital role in the future and provide the long term replacement for Tony Morley. These goals gave Aston Villa a 4-2 win at Villa Park to seal an 6-2 aggregate win and set up a date with Italian giants Juventus in the quarter-Finals in the Spring.

Pain In Japan

It was December 12th 1982 and Aston Villa had the opportunity to become the first English side to win the World Club Championship. The final was in Tokyo and they faced Uruguayan side Penarol.

Villa had plenty of possession and few chances but couldn’t stop a skilful Penarol side from winning by 2-0. This would be one of the last games for Jimmy Rimmer. Rimmer had kept the number 1 jersey at the beginning of the season but would eventually make way for the new kid on the block, Nigel Spink. Rimmer would leave at the end of the season for Swansea City.

Spot Of Revenge

So Aston Villa were unable to become World Champions but had an opportunity to win the European Super Cup. They faced a two legged Final against Barcelona and a chance to avenge the painful defeat in the Uefa Cup back in 1978.

The first leg was at Nou Camp with Villa slipping to a narrow 1-0 defeat, leaving us all to do at Villa Park.

Now this Barcelona were not the same as the modern side, now under the influence of Lionel Messi. Even by the standards of the early 80s, thwy were very dirty as Tottenham Hotspur could testify in the previous season’s European Cup winners Cup.

Barcelona went down to 10 men while Villa pressed for that breakthrough. They eventually found it when a misplaced free kick eventually found its way to the feet of Golden Gary Shaw to level the tie. Extra time was needed to decide the winners.

Aston Villa were on top and that man Walters won a penalty, which would be taken by Gordon Cowans. It was saved but kindly came back to Cowans who scored from the rebound and from then there would only be one winner.

Ken McNaught scored another priceless goal to clinch a 3-0 win on the night and 3-1 win on aggregate and Aston Villa would win the European Super Cup. In 8 years, Aston Villa had won 5 major trophies, little did fansmimagine it would take 11 years until the next one.

One Test Too Many

With the European Super cup in the bag, the attention was turned back to the defence of the European Cup in one of the hardest assignments yet, Juventus.

Juventus had many of the Italy team that won the previous year’s World Cup including Paolo Rossi and other stars as French playmaker Michel Platini and Polish star Zbigniew Boniek.

The first leg was at Villa Park and Villa couldn’t have made a worse start with Juventus opening the scoring in under a minute. Cowans once more scored a vital goal to level the tie but Juventus scored another to win 2-1 and Villa’s hopes of retaining the trophy were looking slim indeed.

The second leg was in Turin, and Juventus were simply too good. Despite Peter Withe scoring, Villa lost 3-1 with the Italian side winning 5-2 on aggregate.

So it was the end of the road in European Cup but what a road it had been. From entering the competition for the first time in 1981 after winning the first league title in 71 years, Villa would be victorious in Rotterdam the following May.

And we have still had the European Cup nicked more times than Birmingham City have won it! 

This would also mark the end of English sides dominance in European Cup with Liverpool falling at the same stage as Villa. Juventus eventually lost in the final to Hamburg.

Changes

Aston Villa enjoyed a strong season in the League, finishing 6th on 68 points, just 3 off 2nd place Watford.

Villa were two different teams though that season. Showing strong consistency at home, with only Champions Liverpool inflicting a home defeat after the opening day, but 14 defeats from 21 away games cost Villa a chance of finishing 2nd or even competing for the title.

Despite this, 6th was good enough for a place in the Uefa Cup. 

There were also changes in the boardroom and playing staff.

Firstly Doug Ellis was back at Chairman with club facing a £2M debt. Now youngsters, that doesn’t sound like a lot of money but as my parents and older fans can testify it was in 1983!

As for playing staff, following Rimmer out the door was Ken McNaught who joined West Bromwich Albion. New players would join the team giving it a younger feel such as Paul Rideout (Swindon Town) and Steve McMahon (Everton).

Allan Evans was the new Captain as Dennis Mortimer’s time in the team was gradually coming to an end.

The new team started the season positively with just one defeat in 5 before the Uefa Cup began in Portugal.

No Worries

Aston Villa faced Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaraes with a controversial penalty giving Vitoria a slender 1-0 lead from first leg into the return at Villa Park.

This would be no problem for Villa as Peter Withe scored a hat-trick with Colin Gibson and McNaught’s replacement Brendan Ormsby scoring to put Villa in the 2nd round and hoping for a third successive season of European Silverware.

Where The Story Ends

The next round was Russian giants Spartak Moscow with a tricky game in Moscow in which Villa competed very well.

With away goals still being priceless, Villa scored two with outstanding strikes from Gibson and Mark Walters with Villa settling for a 2-2 draw.

All they had to do was to get through at Villa Park but the Russians had other ideas. They took the lead before Withe equalised and Villa lookied like they would hold on for a draw to progress on the away goals rule.

Then disaster struck. A cruel last minute winner for Moscow deflected off Mortimer to give them victory. Villa failed to make the latter stages of European competition since their first campaign began in 1975.

 Villa continue to struggle for consistency in the league so qualifying for European football through league position looked unlikely but we were enjoying a good run in the League Cup, then known as the Milk Cup.

Villa reached the Semi-Finals to play another of the big giants Everton. Everton had struggled for consistency since the 1977 League Cup. Former player now manger Howard Kendall was facing tough times even with a certain Andy Gray recently joining them.

Everton started to turn the corner ahead of the first leg at Goodison Park and they would win 2-0 giving Villa it all to do at Villa Park.

The second leg was a struggle but in the end Aston Villa won the match with Paul Rideout scoring the winner but losing 2-1 on aggregate. Everton would shortly began their successful period just as Villa’s was ending.

Aston Villa finished 10th with Tony Barton being shown the door by Doug Ellis after just over two successful years in charge. A new Man would be needed to take Villa into a period of change and still compete at the top.

Fresh Face

Manchester United’s Manager Ron Atkinson was strongly linked with the job but he decided to stay at Old Trafford with Villa eventually appointing a younger man.

At Just 36, Graham Turner was the new man in charge after enjoying six successful years at second division Shrewsbury Town.

French star Didier Six would join Mulhouse with Gordon Cowans returning from serious injury that kept him out from the previous season.

The League season would be pretty much the same as the last. Inconsistency cost Villa any chance of competing honours- patchy form in the league and early exits from both domestic cup competitions.

In the season Des Bremner left to rejoin old Manager Ron Saunders at Birmingham City with more heroes of the 1982 team leaving at the end of the season. 

These were Dennis Mortimer (Brighton & Hove Albion), Peter Withe (Sheffield United) and Gordon Cowans joining Paul Rideout to Bari in Italy.

Aston Villa finished 10th once more but this would prove to be irrelevant after Football endured some horrific moments in May 1985.

Troubled Times

Crowd violence in Football had been around for a long time before 1985 but there would be moments that really shook the English game’s image. They were horrible. For example, Millwall fans rioting after their  FA Cup defeat to Luton Town , and violence in the 2nd division game between Birmingham City and Leeds United which saw a young fan killed by a brick wall collapsing on him. It was his very first Football match, and he was aged just 15.

Then came the horrific Fire at Valley Parade during Bradford City’s title winning match against Lincoln City, killing 56 fans.

Then came more English violence in Europe in at the European Cup Final on 29th May 1985 between Juventus and Liverpool.

The match was held in the Belgian city of Heysel and yes the Stadium was falling apart. This didn’t excuse the behaviour of the Liverpool fans, that led Juventus fans to collapsing a wall, killing 39 fans.

The match was uneventful with Juventus winning 1-0 but the tragic events would mark a dark moment of English Football.

With the Country and Government suffering from the backdrop, Margaret Thatcher spoke about withdrawing all the English teams from Uefa Competitions but Uefa naturally beat us to it.

A 5 year ban for all English teams from European competitions was mandated, with Liverpool to face an additional year.

Getting Worse

Still at least everyone could enjoy live games in the 1985-86 season on TV. Well, that didn’t go to plan either. After Everton beat Manchester United 2-0 in the Charity Shield, a TV deal collapsed which meant no league matches would be shown on TV until after Christmas.

Football was really having a dark time where others sports such as Darts and Snooker were enjoying a rich time on telly.

As for Villa, Turner faced his second season in charge, knowing he would achieve more although that would get more difficult.

Andy Gray would return from Everton with Steve Hodge joining from Nottingham Forest replacing Liverpool bound Steve McMahon. 

Aston Villa reached the Semi-Finals of the League Cup for the second time in 3 years. This time we faced Oxford United, who were in their first season in the top division with Villa expected to win.

This wouldn’t be the case though. Paul Birch and Simon Stainrod scored in a thrilling 2-2 draw in first leg at Villa Park ahead of the second leg at Manor Ground.

Oxford raced into a 2-0 lead and  were heading for Wembley. a late Mark Walters goal wasn’t enough as Oxford United eventually won their first trophy beating QPR 3-0 in the Final.

The league season would be the worst for Villa since their first season back in the top division in 1975/76 season. They finished 16th, just 3 points off the relegation places.

Last Hope

1986/87 started poorly for Aston Villa with 5 defeats out of first 6 league games. The last one was a 6-0 drubbing at Nottingham Forest which proved to be Graham Turner’s last in charge.

Turner had a tough task in turning over a high volume of older players and keeping high standards, at the same time as difficult financial restraints. Turner had tasted success for Shrewsbury before Villa and had outstanding service to Hereford United afterwards.

His replacement was a proven winner and leader who was the first British player to lift the European Cup in 1967. Billy McNeill had captained Celtic in their 2-1 win in Lisbon over Inter Milan, and had enjoyed success as Celtic Manager winning 3 titles before departing to Manchester City in 1983.

This was another club in crisis, run by the controversial Peter Swales. They had achieved promotion to the First Division in 1985.

Initially things looked promising but McNeill had to face unrest by the first (that i known of) target for Villa boo boys for wanting to leave the club. Steve Hodge had only joined over a year ago but had become an England International, playing at 1986 World Cup.

Now he wanted to move on and eventually got his wish, going to Tottenham Hotspur. Dwight Yorke, Gareth Barry and Jack Grealish would be others in the future, but those you hear move about later in the series.

Aston Villa shouldered on and we’re looking not to just avoid relegation but to get away from the first of what would be known as promotion/relegation playoffs, by finishing 4th from bottom.

In truth, that looked unlikely that Villa would finish that high in the table. A 2-1 defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday in the last home game of the season sealed our fate. It sealed McNeill’s fate as Manager too.

Now What?

So after 12 year stay in the top division that had seen Villa win the league cup, first division title, European Cup and European Super Cup, we found ourselves back in the 2nd division, 20 years after we dropped there before.

Just 3 members of the team from one night in Rotterdam in 1982 remained at the club- Nigel Spink, Allan Evans and Gary Shaw.

Now we had to bounce back but who would be the man who could turn this club around? Who could transform the team that had become a shambles?

Next Edition- European Journey