Villa's European Cup story has been told many times. As a break from the norm, AVFC.co.uk starts a new four-part feature on the 30th anniversary of the triumph, looking at the squad's unsung heroes. We begin with Terry Donovan.By Rob BishopThink of Villa's European Cup triumph and you immediately bring to mind images of Peter Withe's winning goal and Dennis Mortimer proudly holding up the trophy.But long before that glorious night in Rotterdam, the foundations of the club's finest hour were being laid by a striker who would be on the other side of the Atlantic by the time of the final victory over Bayern Munich.Terry Donovan played just 23 domestic appearances in claret and blue, scoring nine goals.But he was also on target twice in Villa's first European Cup-tie, a 5-0 thrashing of Icelandic club Valur, in September 1981.Thirty-one years later, Donovan has just one regret - he should really have had a hat-trick!"It was great to score two on such an important occasion," he says. "But it should have been at least three!"Peter Withe and I both missed some really easy chances that night. To have been able to say I'd scored a hat-trick in the European Cup would have been incredible, but I still look back on it as the highlight of my career."Valur were no great shakes but no-one can take away the fact that I scored twice in Europe's top competition."Donovan, in the side because Gary Shaw was injured, might also have had a hat-trick in a 3-1 win at Tottenham two weeks earlier, when he scored twice and had another effort disallowed.He was also in the line-up for drawn games at home to Manchester United and against Liverpool at Anfield, immediately before and after the European tie."I was delighted to be involved in such big games," he says. "Unfortunately for me, Gary was fit for the return match against Valur, so I was on the bench in Iceland."All I remember from that trip was how cold it was!"The son of Don Donovan, the former Everton captain and Eire international, Terry was born in Liverpool but moved to Grimsby as a baby when his dad was transferred from Goodison Park to Grimsby Town.He joined Villa for £72,000 in 1979 after establishing himself as a prolific scorer during three seasons with his hometown club Grimsby Town."I signed the same week as Tony Morley but he cost a fair bit more," he recalls."That's probably why he was given a club car - an orange Ford Capri - and I didn't get one."Villa won the league and the European Cup while I was there, but I can't say I really felt part of it. Ron Saunders always wanted the first team and reserves kept apart in training, so apart from the occasions when I was in the squad, I wasn't really involved with the senior players."But we had a good reserve side, with players like Nigel Spink, Noel Blake, Brendan Ormsby, Pat Heard and Gary Shelton. I usually played up front, alongside Mark Walters."I was an unused sub twice during the championship season, but that was all. If was great being part of such a fantastic set-up but at the same time I didn't feel part of it, if you know what I mean."That Villa team was so underrated. When people talk about those days, they tend to remember Liverpool and Nottingham Forest dominating the European Cup. But for Villa to win the league with just 14 players and then lift the European Cup at the first attempt was amazing."Apart from the first leg against Valur, Donovan was also on the bench for the return match in Reykjavik and was an unused sub again in the home leg of the quarter-final against Dynamo Kiev.But while he was never overawed in Villa's first team, it became evident throughout that European Cup season that his future lay beyond the Midlands.That was why he decided to take a very different course, even as Villa were counting down to the biggest night in the club's history."With the exception from the game in Russia, I was at every European Cup game, so it would have been great to be at the final," he admits."There were seven or eight of us going for five places on the bench in Rotterdam and it didn't look like I was going to be one of them."Then Portland Timbers asked me to play for them for a season so I was left with the choice to go there or just sit and watch from the stand in Rotterdam. It was important to me to be playing so I went to America."From May to October, he was on loan to Portland before returning to join Burnley and subsequently Rotherham United, where his career was ended prematurely by a cruciate ligament injury in 1986, at the age of 28.Next up in two weeks time is the story of Ivor Linton.
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Topic: The '82 Unlikely Lads (Read 2763 times)
