Nigel Spink: The night the novice goalkeeper became an Aston Villa legend
It was a day which began with Billy Connolly and ended with a champagne reception.
Somewhere in the middle Villa won the European Cup and a 23-year-old Nigel Spink wrote his name into football folklore.
Every cup success comes packed with stories, no matter the club or competition. Villa’s route to claiming of club football’s greatest competition contained more than most, yet there is something about movie script quality of Spink’s which elevates it above the rest.
His is the tale of the young inexperienced goalkeeper thrust into the limelight in only his second senior appearance, who goes on to shine on the biggest stage with man-of-the-match performance.
Over the next two decades Spink would go on to make more than 550 appearances, 460 of them for Villa. But 35 years ago today in Rotterdam, his legendary status was already assured.
“It was surreal. Utterly, utterly surreal,” says Spink down a crackling phone line, before being briefly interrupted by the sound of his sat-nav. Life moves at a very different pace for Spink these days. Now aged 58, he has for the last few years developed a successful courier business.
Stories of Rotterdam still come easily though and tonight he will sit down at home to relive it all again.
“I’ve got a copy of the DVD and I do watch it every now and again,” he says. “I was just thinking the other day how I will get it out on Friday night and watch.
“It’s strange but though you can watch a game so many times, you always get drawn into it. It’s not like I can put it on in the background or anything like that. Once its on, I have to give it full concentration.”
Famously, Spink’s participation in the final was not supposed to have extended past a watching brief itself.
Signed by Villa from non-league Chelmsford City in 1977 on a deal which initially saw him earn just £50-a-week, Spink had made just one senior appearance in five years and admits even travelling with the first-team was something of a novelty.
“In the league you still only had one substitute and even then never really expected to get anywhere near the pitch,” he says.
“I remember the substitutes on the night all agreed we were going to make the most of it. We went out to warm-up an hour before kick-off, trying to soak up as much of it as possible.”
The relaxed mood, according to Spink, extended to the starting XI.
There is no debating the fact Villa were big underdogs. Opponents Bayern Munich contained such greats as Klaus Augenthaler, Paul Breitner and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and were vastly more experienced on the big stage.
Yet if Villa had any nerves, they didn’t show them, something Spink credits to boss Tony Barton. By the time of the final, Barton had only been in charge for 56 days, having replaced Ron Saunders when the League-title winning manager sensationally walked out over a contract dispute. But he had already begun to make an impact.
“Tony was a very different character to Ron, he was very calm and that transferred himself to players. There was an inner strength about him,” says Spink.
“He and Roy MacLaren helped bring a stability to the group. Of course Tony wasn’t well-known outside of Villa at the time. But he had helped scout a large portion of the team which won the league the year before. Brian Clough remarks quite early on in the TV commentary how relaxed we all looked and it was true.
“One thing I remember is us all listening to a cassette tape of Billy Connolly on the coach from the hotel to the ground. The whole squad had been given Sony Walkmans by one of the sponsors and the lads all had their own tapes.
“Someone had one of Billy Connolly’s live shows and stuck it in the main tape player. The whole coach was laughing along.”
Though Jimmy Rimmer had injured his neck in training a day previously, Villa’s first choice keeper was expected to play without any problem. Spink admits to recalling virtually nothing of the opening nine minutes before the veteran had to admit defeat and he was flung into the fray.
“It was quick as a flash,” he says. “There seemed to be no time between the realisation Jimmy had a problem and me being on the pitch.“I don’t think there is any question it helped. I didn’t have time to worry about it.
“One thing I remember is when I passed (skipper) Dennis Mortimer, he shouted ‘f***ing brilliant, son’.
“All I had to go on was the hundreds of reserve games I had played for the club and I guess you try and yourself it must be your ability which has got you here.
“Then I made a save. It was a relatively straightforward one but probably the moment when I thought ‘OK, maybe I am part of this thing’.”
Spink would make several more saves as Bayern poured forward but Villa held firm. There are certain moments which stand out more than others,” he says. “I remember the save from Durnberger in the second half.
“I also recall two, piercing moments of cold isolation. The first was when Peter Withe scored because I was at the other end of the pitch and couldn’t join in the celebrations.
“The second was the final whistle. You just don’t know what to do with yourself.
“I remember there was a small pocket of Villa fans behind the goal and going over to applaud them. But really it was all a blur.”
Celebrations on the pitch and in the dressing room were followed by a meal back at the team hotel.
“It was a surreal scene,” recalls Spink. “The cup was being passed around and there seemed to be hundreds of bottles of champagne.
“Everyone was drinking out of the cup but you couldn’t get drunk. The adrenaline was still flowing, even then.”
