In a nutshell, first choice goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer had to leave the field after 10 minutes due to a neck injury and ineffectual painkillers.
Sub goalie was Nigel Spink who at 23 was a stripling and had only made one appearance for the team since joining Villa in 1977. He was the hero and made many great saves against the international class Germans.
Villa scored one after 67 minutes when Gary Shaw passed to Tony Morley who slipped the ball across the penalty area to Peter Withe who tapped home; and then parked the bus.
Spink left Villa in 1996 gathering another 458 appearances and finished his career at WBA.
Prior to this success, master minded by the quietly spoken assistant manager Tony Barton, manager Ron Saunders, who had a no nonsense approach to football ( I saw him play at Portsmouth and at centre forward there was no nonsense!), had quit the team when they were in the quarter finals after a disagreement with the chairman. Saunders went on to Birmingham and West Brom before retiring and at 83 is still alive.
Barton took the side to win the European Cup, adding to the many other trophies won by a team that is one of the most historic clubs in the country. Sadly the following year or so did not match up to that success and he was sacked in 1984.
He was born in Surrey and played for one of my old clubs, Sutton United. He went on to manage at Northampton Town but suffered a heart attack and resigned. He then recovered to be assistant manager at Southampton, then went along the coast to Portsmouth and eventually was offered the managership at non-league Hampshire club, Petersfield Town, but died before he could take up the post, in 1993 aged 56.
Villa have won the 1st Division title 7 times, the FA Cup 7 times, the Football League Cup 5 times, and the UEFA Super Cup beating Barcelona in 1982. As now, turmoil happened and Villa were relegated in 1987. Graham Taylor took over and things changed!!
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