Peter Withe

Early career

Withe 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 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 in two seasons from 1973. In 17 league games he scored three goals. During the summer of 1975, Withe spent one season in the United States as a member of the expansion Portland Timbers 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 2–0. Withe returned to the West Midlands to join Birmingham City 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 joined Nottingham Forest as manager in January 1975. In the summer of 1976 he was joined by Peter Taylor,…

Withe's 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. Capped by England 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.

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. His biggest successes were when paired with a sharp, quick strike partner.

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, being brought in from the position of reserve team coach at Aston Villa in October 1991 following Ray Harford'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. Withe went into management and, after propelling the Thailand national team towards some success, managed Indonesia 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 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 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.