TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR v ASTON VILLA

Date : -  Saturday 22nd August 1981

Kick off : -  15:00 p.m.

Venue : -  Wembley

Crowd : -  92,500

Weather : -  Bright and dry.

Referee : -  Alf Grey (Great Yarmouth)

Score : -

Goalscorers : -           

Tottenham Hotspur : -  Ray Clemence, Chris Hughton, Paul Miller, Graham Roberts, Ricky Villa, Steve Perryman (c), Ossie Ardiles, Steve Archibald, Tony Galvin, Glenn Hoddle, Mark Falco
Subs : - Milija Aleksic, Gordon Smith, Paul Price, Garry Brooke, Chris Jones

Aston Villa: -  Jimmy Rimmer, Kenny Swain, Colin Gibson, Allan Evans, Ken McNaught, Dennis Mortimer (c) (Andy Blair), Des Bremner, David Geddis, Peter Withe, Gordon Cowans, Tony Morley.
 

Champions Aston Villa faced FA Cup winners Spurs on a sunny day at Wembley in an entertaining game that saw the clubs share the FA Charity Shield.

Peter Withe won a free-kick on the right when he was fouled by Graham Roberts and from it, the ball dropped in the box for Allan Evans to shoot from the left side of the goal, but Ray Clemence was behind it and grabbed it at the second attempt before the Villa defender could get there again.

From a Villa corner, Clemence dropped the ball in the six yard box when trying to catch it over his head, leaving Withe the simple task of putting the ball into an empty net to hand the Midlanders the lead.

Miller won ball on halfway, played it to Ardiles, onto Archibald, who rolled the ball under his foot behind him to return it to Ossie. His little pass to his right found Falco on the edge of the D and he took a touch on the stretch with his left foot, before turning to hit it with his right foot over Rimmer and into the roof of the net from 20 yards out.

Into the second half, Chris Hughton took the ball off Withe after the Villa man’s loose control and moving forward from the centre-circle in the opponent’s half, he swept the ball left to Tony Galvin. The winger’s cross was cleared, Mabbutt mis-hit his volley and it came out to Hoddle, who passed to Galvin on the left side of the box. This time, he pulled it back short and Falco shot with his left foot across Rimmer, who got a hand to it, but could only help it into the net.

With Gibson and Morley opening up the right side of our defence, Morley lifted a high cross to the far post and under pressure from Geddis, Clemence could not get to the ball that dropped onto Withe’s head to level the score at 2-2. The Spurs keeper needed treatment after the goal and although it appeared that he was impeded, the referee gave no free-kick.

Another up and under into the box, this time from Bremner, caused problems for Clemence, who this time got a hand on it to take it onto the crossbar and over the top.

Spurs went on to retain the FA Cup this season, while Aston Villa went on to win the European Cup.