It was 30 years ago today that Aston Villa last won a league title when we were crowned English Champions despite losing our final game in a season that went to the wire.

If you had glanced at the old First Division table on the morning of May 2nd 1981 you’d have seen the top half looking like this:

We were heading to Highbury to take on Arsenal in our final game needing a point to guarantee the title. Ipswich had to travel to Middlesbrough for their penultimate game hoping that we would lose and they’d pick up some sort of result leaving them with a title chance in their final game of the season at home to Southampton.

Of course, all teams play their final games at the same time now, but back then we may have had to spend eleven agonising days unsure whether we’d won the title or not, entirely dependant on how Ipswich would get on in their final game on the 13th of May.

We were half way to that happening by losing 2-0 in North London, but it ultimately didn’t matter as Ipswich also lost in Middlesbrough and the title was ours. Ipswich also lost that final game against Southampton 3-2, but they were guaranteed 2nd place regardless of the result.

The Fourteen

One of the most remarkable facts about 1980/81 is that Ron Saunders led Villa to the first title in 71 years utilising just 14 players all season. It’s an astonishing achievement that will surely never be repeated – 32 different players have taken to the pitch in claret and blue in the Premier League so far this season if you were wondering.

I thought it might be interesting to look at how the 14 Villa careers overlapped to hit the sweet spot of all 14 being in the right place in 1980/81, so I pulled this infographic together. As you’ll see below (as usual, click for the larger version), the only player in his first season at Villa Park in 1980 was Peter Withe, who joined from Newcastle having previously won the league with Forest two years earlier.

Perhaps the missing part of the puzzle, then. Withe finished as the season’s joint top scorer in the league with 20 goals, but was crucially only a single goal ahead of strike partner Gary Shaw with 19 (or possibly 18, depending where you look). He’d also go on to score a very important goal in 1982!

Shaw, who turned 20 during the course of the season, would win the PFA Young Player of the Year that season, the last Villa player to do so before Ashley Young and James Milner in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

The team, then, for the most part, would have been Jimmy Rimmer in goal, Ken McNaught and Allan Evans at centre back flanked by Kenny Swain on the right and either Colin Gibson or Gary Williams on the left. A midfield made up of Des Bremner, Gordon Cowans, captain Dennis Mortimer and Tony Morley flying up the left wing setting up the chances for Withe and Shaw. Defender Eamonn Deacy and striker David Geddis were the players who provided the “rotation”.

1980/81 Season Match Results