top of page

Game #3565

Saturday, 8 December 1979

Attendance: 41,160

Lost

Division One

9th (-2)

Liverpool

Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟨 🟨 🟥

Villa Park

Villa lose for the first time in twelve first division games as they are beaten at home by Liverpool to leave them in 9th place in the table.

Aston Villa

1-3

Liverpool

Assist(s) | None

KEY MAN

PREVIOUS MATCH

NEXT MATCH

MATCH TIMELINE

🟢 | 1’ Debut, Terry Bullivant
🕒 | HT Aston Villa 0-0 Liverpool
🥅 | 53’ Goal, 0-1, (Liverpool), Ray Kennedy
⚽ | 54’ Goal, 1-1, Brian Little
🥅 | 65’ Goal, 1-2, (Liverpool), Alan Hansen
🥅 | 74’ Goal, 1-3, (Liverpool), Terry McDermott
🔁 | 75’ Sub off, Terry Bullivant, Sub on, Colin Gibson
🕒 | FT Aston Villa 1-3 Liverpool

ON THIS DAY

Ron Saunders' Villa lose for the first time in twelve Division One games to make it five wins, nine draws and four defeats in eighteen League matches this season. As a result Villa fall back to ninth in the table. Meanwhile, Terry Bullivant made his Villa debut aged 23 after moving from Fulham in November 1979 for a fee of £220,000.

However Mike Pejic made his twelfth and final appearance for Villa aged 29 having only joined earlier in the season before being forced to retire from football due to injury.

Aston Villa

European Cup / Champions League: ❌
UEFA Cup / Europa League: ❌
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1976-77

Liverpool

European Cup / Champions League: 🏆🏆
UEFA Cup / Europa League: 🏆🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: ❌
Last Trophy: 1978-79

FIXTURE HISTORY

Liverpool

Previous 5 vs. Liverpool: 🟩 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟥

FIXTURE DETAILS

Season | 1979-80 |
Matchday | #22 |
League Match | #18 |
Manager Game | #283 |
Saturday, 8 December 1979

MATCH SUMMARY

Manager: Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Birkenhead, 1974-1982
Referee: Clive Thomas | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 | Treorchy, 1966–1984
Kick off: 3.00pm
HT Score: 🟨 0-0
FT Result: 🟥 Lost
FT Score: 🟥 1-3
Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟨 🟨 🟥

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Clive Thomas | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 | Treorchy, 1966–1984 🆘
🆘 Apparently blind to the persistent fouling of Alan Hansen
Previous 5:
Last Match:
Cards: 🟨

CARDS

Villa

None

Liverpool

🟨

Clive Thomas

TEAM NEWS

Terry Bullivant comes in for his debut in place of the suspended Dennis Mortimer.

TEAM STATS

Starting XI Average Age
| 25.02 |

Oldest Player |
GK Jimmy Rimmer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 31.85 |

Youngest Player |
F Gary Shaw | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 18.06 |

MANAGER

MANAGER

Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

Bob Paisley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

Aston Villa

GK Jimmy Rimmer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
RB Kenny Swain | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Ken McNaught | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
CB Allan Evans | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
LB Mike Pejic | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Des Bremner | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
M Terry Bullivant | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🟢 | 🔁 |
M Gordon Cowans | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
F Brian Little | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ |
F Gary Shaw | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CF David Geddis | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

Liverpool

GK Ray Clemence | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
LB Alan Kennedy | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Alan Hansen | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | ⚽ |
CB Phil Thompson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
RB Phil Neal | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Graeme Souness | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
M Terry McDermott | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ |
M Jimmy Case | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
W Ray Kennedy | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ |
CF Kenny Dalglish | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
CF David Johnson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

SUBSTITUTES

🔁 | M Colin Gibson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | for M Terry Bullivant | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 75' |

SUBSTITUTES

No Substitutions Made

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

None

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

CF David Fairclough | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

SQUAD STATS

1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 11/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 12/12

MATCHDAY SQUAD

SQUAD STATS

1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 11/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 12/12

MATCHDAY SQUAD

UNAVAILABLE

Injury | 3 |
M Alex Cropley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
M Frank Carrodus | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
W Tony Morley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

Suspension | 1 |
M Dennis Mortimer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

UNAVAILABLE

Not Recorded

Player Abbreviations:

GK : Goalkeeper

LB, RB, FB : Left Back, Right Back, Full Back

CB, D : Centre Back, Defender

M, W : Midfielder. Winger

F, CF : Forward, Centre Forward

🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game

Symbols:

⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution

🟨 | Booking

🟥 | Sending off

🆘 | Poor refereeing performance

DEBUT APPEARANCES

M Terry Bullivant | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

FINAL APPEARANCES

MATCH STATS

Not recorded

TABLE

2021-22 Matchweek 38.jpg

PROGRAMME

Quotation Marks.png

MATCHDAY QUOTES

“We knew we were going to win."

Phil Thompson, Liverpool.

*Birmingham Daily Post*
Monday, 10 December 1979

​Liverpool skipper Phil Thompson described Villa as "a very good side" after his team had run out 3-1 winners at Villa Park on Saturday. Then he added. "But we knew we were going to win."

The England international had contributed in full to a fascinating game that was played fractionally too fast for Liverpool's liking during the first half.

Villa looked almost the equal of the clinical league champions in that spell, but once their midfield trio, lacking the suspended Mortimer, had run themselves out, Liverpool took calm control and the chance of an upset disappeared minute by minute.

Complimented on their part in producing one of the most entertaining games seen at Villa Park this season. Thompson said: "A couple of years ago we used to get a lot of goalless draws away from Anfield and we used to take a lot of stick over it."

"That was in the days when everybody was talking about us in terms of machines and robots, but now it's changed and our entertainment value is very high."

Villa manager Ron Saunders agreed. "The first hour gave me tremendous satisfaction and everybody must have gone home thoroughly entertained."

Just for a while there was a possibility that Villa could stretch their 11-match unbeaten run still further. With McNaught playing probably his finest game in Villa's colours and with Evans also in top form, Liverpool's Dalglish and Johnson found it hard to make any worthwhile impression.

But Liverpool are where they are because they can capture something out of nothing and Ray Kennedy did just that after 53 minutes when he found himself temporarily alone about 25 yards out. A deceptively lazy swing of the left leg and the ball rocketed past a startled Rimmer to the corner of the net.

It was the first of three goals in five minutes. Villa took only 40 seconds to equalise through Little, but in the 60th minute Hansen restored Liverpool's lead when he got up unchallenged to head home a Case cross at the far post.

Effectively, that was the end of Villa's hopes. Liverpool slowed the game down to their own required pace, and added a third in the 74th minute when a mistake by Pejic his only one of the game left McDermott with plenty of time to beat Rimmer with an angled shot from about 18 yards.