Peter Withe (; born 30 August 1951) is an English former football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and striker who played between 1971 and 1990. At

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

he won the

Anglo-Scottish Cup The Anglo-Scottish Cup was a tournament arranged for teams in the English and Scottish football leagues during the summer for several years during the 1970s. It was created in 1975 as a new incarnation of the Texaco Cup, with a similar format ...

and Second Division promotion in 1976–77, First Division and the

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

in 1977–78, and the 1978 FA Charity Shield. After a spell at Newcastle it was back to more success at

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

with whom he won the First Division 1980–81, going on to score the only goal in the 1982 European Cup final and also win the

1982 European Super Cup The 1982 European Super Cup was contested between the European Cup holders Aston Villa and the Cup Winners' Cup holders Barcelona. The match took place over two legs in January 1983. The first leg was won by Barcelona 1–0 at the Camp Nou stadium ...

. He played for England 11 times, scoring once, and was a squad member at the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national footbal ...

. After his playing career, Withe worked as a manager, predominantly in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

Playing career

Style of play

Withe was a big, tall, strong, powerful and imposing centre-forward. Dangerous in the air, his ability to shield the ball was also an asset to teammates."Peter Withe" The Observer, 6 February 2005
/ref>"Player Details Peter Withe" toon1892
/ref> His biggest successes were when paired with a sharp, quick strike partner.

Club career

Early career

He began his career at Southport but left in 1971 after a handful of appearances. Late that year he made an appearance for the reserve team of

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

but soon moved on to Barrow for whom he made one appearance (against his former club Southport on 1 January 1972). After this he played in South Africa. Withe played for

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

in two seasons from 1973. In 17 league games he scored three goals.Peter Withe on Neil Brown's player website
/ref> During the summer of 1975, Withe spent one season in the United States as a member of the expansion

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Timbers have p ...

of the North American Soccer League (NASL). He scored 17 goals and added 7 assists in 22 games, leading the Timbers to first place in their division, and tied for the best record in the league at 16–6. Withe's goals that summer made him a Timbers fan favourite, who nicknamed him "The Mad Header" and "The Wizard of Nod". In August the Timbers played two home play-off games in front of more than 30,000 fans each, numbers unheard of for US soccer at the time. They advanced to Soccer Bowl '75, the League Championship final, in San Jose, California on 24 August, where they lost to the

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...

2–0. Withe returned to the West Midlands to join

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

in 1975. He scored nine goals in 35 league games in just over a season before departing early in the 1976/77 season.

Nottingham Forest

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

joined

as manager in January 1975. In the summer of 1976 he was joined by Peter Taylor, who had been his assistant at

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

in winning the 1971–72 Football League.dcfc.co.uk "Derby County Club History"
/ref> From Taylor's arrival Forest immediately went into upswing.nffc.co.uk "History of NFFC – Nottingham Forest"
/ref> Forest signed the 25-year-old Withe to make his debut for the club on 25 September 1976. He scored on his debut in a 5–1

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier ...

home win v

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team currently compete in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They have played their ...

with strike partner John O'Hare also scoring. Withe was given a new strike partner on 3 November 1976 in an

2–0 win at Ayr United. Tony Woodcock was recalled to the first team, bringing speed and anticipation to the front two to complement Withe's height, strength and power."Arsenal's original 'Fox-in-the-box" – Highbury Hero Tony Woodcock"
/ref> Withe and Woodcock both scored at Ayr. Withe ended the season as the club top scorer with 19 goals and Woodcock second with 17 and Forest's Player of the Year despite his November seasonal debut. Forest's first trophy of the Clough and Taylor regime was in December that season beating Orient over two legs in the Anglo-Scottish Cup final. Withe played in the 1–1 first leg away draw on 13 December 1976 but then spent two weeks out the side missing the 4–0 second leg win. Forest won promotion at the end of the season to the top tier from finishing third in Division Two."The City Ground – Peter Withe"
/ref>"The City Ground – Tony Woodcock"
/ref> Withe and Woodcock won the 1977–78 Football League First Division and 1977–78 Football League Cup with Forest. They ended the season as Forest's joint top scorers with 19 goals each. Withe scored in the 1978 FA Charity Shield 5–0 win against Ipswich Town on 12 August 1978. After playing in the 1–1 league home draw the week after against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, Forest agreed to sell him for £225,000 just before his 27th birthday at the end of that month. Withe scored 39 goals in 99 competitive first team games for Forest. This included 28 goals in 75 league games. His place in the next three games was given to league debutant Steve Elliott; all of them ended goalless."SEASON: 1978–79" The City Ground
/ref> The number 9 jersey was then given to 22-year-old

Garry Birtles Garry Birtles (born 27 July 1956) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a forward in the Football League between the 1970s and 1990s. He is best known for his time at Nottingham Forest, during which he won the 1979 and 19 ...

who promptly became a regular first choice, winning the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

with Forest in this season and the following one."GARRY BIRTLES"
/ref>

Newcastle United

Withe joined

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

then in the Second Division for a transfer fee of £225,000. He debuted in a 1–1 home draw v

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

In just under two seasons he scored 25 goals in 76 league games.

Aston Villa

Ron Saunders took him to

on the eve of the 1980–81 season when the Birmingham club paid £500,000 for the club's record signing at the time. He was 29 at the end of the month that league season started. Withe was paired with Gary Shaw whose pace and anticipation gave Withe a strike partner with playing similarities to Tony Woodcock when Withe was at Forest."Gary Shaw: A true Aston Villa legend" Express and Star, 27 February 2017
/ref>"We are the Champions: 1980-81- Aston Villa" gameofthepeople.com 25 November 2016
/ref> Withe won a trophy in each of his first three seasons at

Villa Park Villa Park is a association football, football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, with a seating capacity of 42,918. It has been the home of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witt ...

."Peter Withe" Aston Villa Football Club
/ref> Withe scored 20 times in 36 games to finish joint-top scorer in the league with

's Steve Archibald in that first season as

won the Football League title. Withe and Spurs'

Mark Falco Mark Peter Falco (born 22 October 1960) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker for a number of clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, Watford, Rangers and Queens Park Rangers. Career Falco was born in Bethnal Green, ...

both scored twice sharing the

1981 FA Charity Shield The 1981 FA Charity Shield was the 59th FA Community Shield, FA Charity Shield, an annual association football, football match played between the winners of the previous season's The Football League, Football League and FA Cup competitions. The ma ...

from a 2–2 draw.footballsite.co.uk 1981–82 Charity Shield
/ref> Withe scored the only goal in the 1982 European Cup final win against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

. The season after Withe played in the

3–1 aggregate win against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

. He scored 90 goals in over 200 games for Villa. After five years he eventually moved on in what he later described as "the biggest wrench of my career."

Later career

He joined Sheffield United scoring 18 goals in 74 league games in three seasons from 1985 to 1988. In his last season there he scored twice in eight league games on loan back at ex-club, Birmingham City. Both of these goals were actually against Sheffield United. They let him play on loan in a match, where goalkeeper Roger Hansbury had gone on loan the other way. He ended his senior playing days scoring once in 38 league games at

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

between 1988 and 1990.

International

His England debut was in a 1–0 home friendly defeat by Brazil on 12 May 1981. His first four England caps were all without victory with a draw with Wales and defeats by Scotland and Norway."Peter Withe" Sporting Heroes
/ref> Capped by

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

11 times, Withe scored once, and was the first Aston Villa player to be selected in an England World Cup Finals squad (in Spain 1982). His goal was against Hungary on 27 April 1983 in his 7th cap. His last cap was on 14 November 1984 when Turkey were beaten 8–0. Withe ended his international career with 5 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats.

Managerial career

Withe returned to Aston Villa in a coaching capacity in January 1991. During this time, he also made one playing appearance for Villa's reserve team. Withe had a brief spell as manager of

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, being brought in from the position of reserve team coach at Aston Villa in October 1991 following

Ray Harford Raymond Thomas Harford (1 June 1945 – 9 August 2003) was an English footballer, better known for his successes as a coach and manager than as a player. He is considered to have been one of the top coaches of his generation. During his playi ...

's resignation. Withe's time in charge was not at all successful, winning only one game out of thirteen in the league, and after many players expressed their dislike of his methods, he was dismissed after just 105 days at the helm and replaced by the club's youth team coach

Joe Kinnear Joseph Patrick Kinnear (27 December 1946 – 7 April 2024) was an Irish professional football manager and player. As a defender, Kinnear spent the majority of his career spanning ten seasons with Tottenham Hotspur and one with Brighton & H ...

. Withe went into

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

and, after propelling the Thailand national team towards some success, managed

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

until 18 January 2007. He was sacked due to his side's inability to go past the first round of the

ASEAN Football Championship The ASEAN Championship (formerly known as the AFF Championship or AFF Cup), currently known as the ASEAN Hyundai Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the biennial football tournament organized by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) for men's natio ...

, the tournament which he previously won with Thailand in 2000 and 2002, then finished as the runner-up with Indonesia in 2004. He was given a brief touchline ban as manager of Thailand for wearing shorts during an international match against the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. The head of the Thai Football Association said he should be wearing a suit. He managed English non-league club Stockport Sports from April to November 2012.

Family

His brother,

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, and Christine. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), Nigerian autho ...

, played for

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

. Withe's son,

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Med ...

, also became a footballer, coach and manager.

Honours

As a player

Portland Timbers *

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

Nottingham Forest * First Division: 1977–78 *

: 1977–78 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

: 1976 Aston Villa * First Division: 1980–81 * FA Charity Shield:

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

: 1981–82 *

European Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

Individual *

Player of the Year: 1978–79

As a manager

Thailand *

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

Indonesia *

Runner-up:

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

References

External links

*
Withe looks to improve Indonesia's fortunesPersonal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Withe, Peter Living people 1951 births English men's footballers English expatriate men's footballers England men's international footballers English Football League players First Division/Premier League top scorers UEFA Champions League–winning players 1982 FIFA World Cup players Arcadia Shepherds F.C. players Southport F.C. players Barrow A.F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. non-playing staff Portland Timbers (1975–1982) players Birmingham City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Newcastle United F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players English football managers Wimbledon F.C. managers Aston Villa F.C. non-playing staff North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Thailand national football team managers 2000 AFC Asian Cup managers Footballers from Liverpool Indonesia national football team managers Port Elizabeth City F.C. players Men's association football forwards English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in Indonesia English expatriate sportspeople in Thailand National Football League (South Africa) players