Villa 🟩 win their final League game of the season to make it 🟩 nine Division One wins, 🟨 five draws and 🟥 five defeats under Tony Barton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.

In total Barton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 had led Villa for 🕒 twenty four games and delivered 🟩 eleven wins, 🟨 seven draws and 🟥 six defeats since taking over from Ron Saunders 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.

Saunders' 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 record over 35 games in 1981-82 had been 🟩 fifteen wins, 🟨 eight draws and 🟥 twelve losses. 

Villa’s unsuccessful title defence had then consisted of 🟩 fifteen wins, 🟨 twelve draws and 🟥 fifteen defeats across the 42 game season. 

In truth, Villa’s inability to 🟩 win or hold onto a lead under Saunders 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 over the opening months of the season set the tone for the campaign. 

Those 🟨 draws would turn to defeats 🟥 more often and despite a regular pattern of 🟩 wins, Villa, under Saunders 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, sat nearer the relegation places than the title in what was proving to be one of the weakest ever title defences. 

Saunders’ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 departure, whilst unexpected given what had gone before, was perhaps not surprising given the context of the situation as background acrimony and a downturn in form combined to leave a manager questioning where further he could, or wanted, to take Villa. 

Happily, Tony Barton’s 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 initially temporary arrival as Villa boss, after stepping up from his role as Saunders’ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 assistant, paid almost immediate dividends and though 🟥 losses and 🟨 draws were still in evidence, the 🟩 wins, and ⚽ goals began to flow again. 

Saunders’ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🟩 win rate of 43% was well below Barton’s 🟩 48%, but an even bigger differentiator was the comparative loss rates with Saunders’ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🟥 losing one in three compared to Barton’s 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🟥 one in four. 

Ultimately Barton’s 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 better results drove Villa up to 11th in the table but 1981-82 wasn’t a great League season for Villa, in fact it wasn’t even a good one but one game remained that would render everything that had gone before irrelevant.

Midfielder Gordon Cowans 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 makes his 🕒 250th start in a Villa shirt (265 Appearances) to make it 🟩 W121 🟨 D69 🟥 L75, ⚽ 37 Goals and 🔥 38 Assists at a goal involvement rate of one for every 3.53 games he has played so far in his Villa career.

Midfielder Des Bremner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 scores his 9th goal in a Villa shirt in 🕒 145 appearances.