Villa 1 Anderlect 0,

European Cup semi-final 1st leg, 7th April 1982.

The Villa's long haul back to the top had reached one summit the previous season, when the championship was won. Now the cake was to be iced in the best way possible. The departure of Ron Saunders two months earlier had undoubtedly been a hammer blow to the team but they shook it off magnificently and stood on the threshold of the biggest honour in club football.

A price increase for the match wasn't the cleverest of marketing moves with Birmingham suffering in the middle of the worst recession since before the war, and was reflected in a disappointingly low crowd of 38,539, almost ten thousand under Villa Park's capacity at the time and even less than for the quarter-final against Dynamo Kiev. But they saw history being made in the biggest game Villa have ever played at their own ground.

Anderlecht were a typical Continental side, playing an offside trap of rigid precision and attacking at speed on the break. Villa were caught offside five times in the opening quarter of an hour and the Belgian counter-attacks caused us some problems.

Villa were lucky in that the enigmatic Tony Morley was having one of his best games for the club, and he put Villa ahead midway through the first half when taking the ball down the left wing, beating a couple of defenders and hitting a shot past keeper Munaron.

Rather than discouraging Anderlecht, they stepped up a gear and ended the first half well in control. Villa were having to defend in numbers, and in the 40th minute Jimmy Rimmer made the most vital save of his Villa career when he brilliantly pushed a fierce drive from Vercauteren round the post for a corner.

The second half was not worthy of the occasion. Anderlecht seemed content to take a one-goal deficit back to Pare Astrid, Villa were too wary of the Belgians' ability to try to increase their advantage. They did, though, come close a couple of times. After 67 minutes Munaron made a good save from Morley, but the game wound down with both side apparently happy with the result.

For many people the return leg would be their first chance to see the Villa abroad. The club made provisions to transport supporters, but many others were determined that they would find a way of getting to Brussels under their own steam. The fact that tickets for the return leg were openly on sale at Villa Park on the night of the first game should have alerted the club to potential problems but they preferred not to accept that anyone could possibly get to the match if they weren't travelling officially. They learned an expensive lesson two weeks later.