Welcome to the series where we look at seasons gone by. We feature some of the highs and lows of a campaign, pick out some great games and goals as well as some of the key individuals.
The question is can you Spot The Season and if so how many sections will you need to read to work it out? Find out the answer at the bottom of the page!
POINTS AND POSITION
14th in the top flight, 50 points were registered but there was just one more home win than defeat while there were 10 defeats on the road. Only two sides conceded more away from home, but not bottom of the pile Middlesbrough who leaked 10 fewer than the Sky Blues.
CHAMPIONS
Liverpool took the title, largely on the back of a tremendous away record that featured a dozen wins and just three defeats - two of them in their first two trips.
EVER PRESENT
Nobody succeeded in playing in every game but Paul Dyson and Gary Gillespie missed just a couple each.
TOP SCORER
Mark Hateley hit 18 in all competitions, 13 of them in the league.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Danny Thomas didn’t need to hand the Player of the Year trophy back in as he retained the award.
MANAGER
Dave Sexton was in his first season in charge at Highfield Road.
CROWDS
An average of 13,099 was better than only Notts County in the top division, over 20,000 having seen the opening match of the season against Manchester United. That was the highest of the campaign while the 9,720 who saw the match with Nottingham Forest was the lowest.
CUPS
There was a quick exit from the League Cup at the hands of Everton but a decent run to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup before elimination at the hands of West Brom.
MATCH OF THE SEASON
SOUTHAMPTON 5 - COVENTRY CITY 5
DIVISION ONE, 4 May
With 10 goals shared it should come as no surprise that Saints Kevin Keegan was amongst the scorers given the gung-ho attacking nature Special K’s sides had when he moved into management.
Mark Hateley hit a hat-trick with Steve Whitton bagging two – although Whitton would claim a hat-trick of his own in the next game. For the home side, Keith Cassells joined Keegan in scoring a brace with World Cup winner Alan Ball also on the score-sheet.
Whitton was the first to prompt anyone to dust off an abacus when he beat Yugoslavia international Ivan Katalinic with a volley with Hateley restoring the lead just before the break after Keegan equalised mid-way through the first half.
Cassells headed Saints level almost immediately after the re-start in the second half before further goals from each of City’s two scorers established a two goal cushion for the visitors. There was no time to rest on that cushion though as Ball halved the deficit almost as soon as it had been established as the goals kept flowing. Cassells then provided his second equaliser of the day before Lawrie McMenemy’s men took the lead for the first time in the 84th minute when Keegan popped up to beat Les Sealey and make it 5-4.
With nine goals scored no-one had laid claim to the match ball but with the final whistle about to be sounded, Mark Hateley completed his first hat-trick in a most remarkable match.
ANSWER: 1981-82