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Game #3631

Aston Villa

21-6-5, 48 PTS

Saturday, 7 March 1981

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Won

1st= (+1)

Last 5: 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩

Division One

Sunderland

10-7-16, 27 PTS

Roker Park

Attendance: 27,278

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

Sunderland

1-2

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Aston Villa

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Assist(s) | Tony Morley | 2' | Gordon Cowans | 19' |

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

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MATCH TIMELINE
Saturday, 7 March 1981

⚽ | 2’ Goal, 1-0, Allan Evans, Assist by Tony Morley, (75 Seconds)
⚽ | 19’ Goal, 2-0, Dennis Mortimer, Assist by Gordon Cowans
🟨 | 23' Booking, Kenny Swain for complaining about a rash Sunderland tackle
🕒 | HT Sunderland 0-2 Aston Villa
🥅 | 68’ Goal, 2-1, (Sunderland), Joe Hinnigan
🔁 | 85' Sub off, Ken McNaught, Sub on, Colin Gibson
🕒 | FT Sunderland 1-2 Aston Villa

Match Statistics

Not recorded

Goal ⚽, Assist 🔥, Goal Conceded 🥅, Injury 🚑, Booking 🟨, Sending off 🟥, Comment 🗒️, ❗ Villa Chance,❗❗Huge Villa Chance, 💥 Opposition action, 🎥 VAR, 🆘 Referee error, ❌ Missed pen, disallowed goal, player retires from field of play, 🟢 Debut, 🔴 Final appearance, 🕒 Half time, Full time, 🔁 Substitution

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

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ON THIS DAY
Saturday, 7 March 1981
  • Villa climb back to the top of the first division table, level on points with Ipswich as they win for the seventh consecutive League game and eighth time in ten matches with both clubs now seven points clear of their nearest rivals. 

  • It isn’t all good news however as Peter Withe faces another suspension after his eighth booking of the season and Ken McNaught is stretchered off at Roker Park with his ankle in a cast after suspected ligament damage.

  • Ron Saunders, confined to his sick bed, hands over the reigns to Roy MacLaren as Villa win their seventh game in a row to make it twenty one wins, six draws and five defeats in thirty two League matches this season. As a result Villa go level on points with Ipswich at the top of the Division One table.

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

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DEBUT APPEARANCES

None

FINAL APPEARANCES

None

Seasons | 🕒 Games | ✅ Starts (🔁 Subs) | ⚽ Goals | 🔥 Assists | 🇺 Unused | Player Number |

Aston Villa

League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1976-77

Sunderland

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League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: ❌
Last Trophy: 1972-73

FIXTURE HISTORY
Sunderland
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Previous 5 vs. Sunderland: 🟨 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩

Games 🕒, Won 🟩, Drew 🟨, Lost 🟥, Goals Scored ⚽, Goals Conceded 🥅

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

FIXTURE DETAILS
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Season | 1980-81 |
Matchday | #36 |
League Match | #32 |
Manager Game | #349 |
Saturday, 7 March 1981

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🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

MATCH SUMMARY
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Manager: Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Birkenhead, 1974-1982
*Absent with illness*
Roy MacLaren (Caretaker) | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | Auchterarder, 1981
Referee: Colin Seel | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Carlisle, 1974-1985
Kick off: 3.00pm
HT Score: 🟩 2-0
FT Result: 🟩 Won
FT Score: 🟩 2-1
Last 5: 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩

Scorers
Timeline
On This Day
Trophies
Fixture
Manager
MANAGERIAL RECORD
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Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1974-1982

🕒 349 | 🟩 | 160 🟨 | 95 🟥 94 | 1.65

Villa Career Form:

Top 6

Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1974-1982

Games 🕒, Won 🟩, Drew 🟨, Lost 🟥, Points per Game

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

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MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Colin Seel | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Carlisle, 1974-1985

VAR PROFILE (from 2021)

CARDS
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🟨 Kenny Swain for complaining about a rash Sunderland tackle

CARDS
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🟨

🆘 Total failure to control Sunderland's desperate fouls

Won 🟩, Drew 🟨, Lost 🟥, Notably poor performance 🆘, Cards 🟨 Booking, Cards 🟥 Sending off, Disallowed ❌ Goal disallowed, ⚽ Penalty for, 🥅 Penalty against, ❌ Penalty Disallowed

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

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TEAM NEWS
TEAM STATS

Ron Saunders names the same line up for a fourth successive match.

Starting XI Average Age
| 26.21 |

Oldest Player |
GK Jimmy Rimmer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 33.09 |

Youngest Player |
F Gary Shaw | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 19.30 |

Referee

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

MANAGER

Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1974-1982

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Aston Villa

GK Jimmy Rimmer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
RB Kenny Swain | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🟨 |
RB Gary Williams | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Allan Evans | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | ⚽ |
CB Ken McNaught | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | 🔁 |
M Des Bremner | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
M Gordon Cowans | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔥 |
M Dennis Mortimer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ |
W Tony Morley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔥 |
F Gary Shaw | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CF Peter Withe | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

MANAGER

Ken Knighton | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

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Sunderland

GK Barry Siddall | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
RB Joe Hinnigan | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ |
CB Gordon Chisholm | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
CB Shaun Elliott | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Rob Hindmarch | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
LB Joe Bolton | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Kevin Arnott | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Ian Bowyer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔁 |
F Tom Ritchie | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
F Gary Rowell | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
F Stan Cummins | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

Line Ups

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

SUBSTITUTES
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🔁 | M Colin Gibson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | for CB Ken McNaught | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | 85' |

SUBSTITUTES

🔁 | M Ian Bowyer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | (M John Cooke | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |)

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Substitutes

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
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None

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
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None

Player Positions:

GK : Goalkeeper
CB, D, B : Centre Back, Defender, Back
FB, LB, RB, WH : Full Back, Left Back, Right Back, Wing Back, Wing Half


M, CH, LH, RH : Midfielder, Centre Half, Left Half, Right Half
W, OL, OR : Winger, Outside Left, Outside Right
F, IF, IL, IR : Forward, Inside Forward, Inside Left, Inside Right, Second Striker, False 9
CF : Centre Forward

Match Symbols:

⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution

🟨 | Booking

🟥 | Sending off

🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game

Squad Bios

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

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

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

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

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

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

MATCHDAY SQUAD
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MATCHDAY SQUAD
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🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

UNAVAILABLE
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Not recorded

UNAVAILABLE
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Not Recorded

Unavailable
LEAGUE TABLE
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Tables & Programmes
🟩 12 Apr 2025, Villa 3-0 Southampton, St Mary's TBL.png
MATCHDAY PROGRAMME
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🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

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MATCH QUOTES
“That's the most intense spell of pressure 23 have been under this season. “I personally have never experienced an atmosphere like that, with the fervour of the crowd really carrying the Sunderland team forward. "At half time I told the players not to be complacent and to think that it was still 0-0. “We were expecting a bit of a Sunderland come back but nothing that strong. "It needed every ounce of professionalism and character that Ron Saunders has built into Aston Villa in the last five years to withstand that bout of pressure." Roy MacLaren.
Quotes

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

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MATCH REPORTS

Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. With thanks to Reach PLC. Digitised by Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited. All rights reserved. Source: British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

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Reports

🟩 7 Mar 1981, Villa 2-1 Sunderland, Roker

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MATCH VIDEO
Videos
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