Peter Withe

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Peter Withe
Peter Withe (1982) .jpg
Peter Withe (1982)
Personnel
birthday August 30, 1951
place of birth LiverpoolEngland
position striker
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1971 Southport FC 3 0(0)
1971-1972 AFC Barrow 1 0(0)
1972-1973 Port Elizabeth City
1973 Arcadia Shepherds
1973-1975 Wolverhampton Wanderers 17 0(3)
1975 Portland Timbers 22 (17)
1975-1976 Birmingham City 35 0(9)
1976-1988 Nottingham Forest 75 (28)
1978-1980 Newcastle United 76 (25)
1980-1985 Aston Villa 182 (74)
1985-1989 Sheffield United 74 (18)
1987 →  Birmingham City  (loan) 8 0(2)
1989-1990 Huddersfield Town 38 0(1)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1981-1985 England 11 (1)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1991 Wimbledon FC
1998-2002 Thailand
2004-2007 Indonesia
1 Only league games are given.

Peter Withe (born August 30, 1951 in Liverpool , England ) is a former English football player and later coach . The former center forward became known above all for his decisive 1-0 winner for Aston Villa in the final of the 1982 European Cup against Bayern Munich . For football he was and is active in large parts of the world. After playing stints in South Africa and the United States , he later became national coach in Thailand and Indonesia .

Career as a football player

After Withe had previously played for fourth-rate clubs - Southport FC and Barrow AFC - he moved to South Africa with his wife Kathy at the age of just 20. There he played for Port Elizabeth City FC and Arcadia Shepherds FC from Pretoria , where he was named Foreign Player of the Year in South Africa in 1973 before returning to England in November 1973.

Withe completed the following two seasons for the Wolverhampton Wanderers . Only after a guest appearance in the then US North American Soccer League ("NASL") at the Portland Timbers in 1975 - where he scored 17 goals in 22 games - and the subsequent return to England for the first division club Birmingham City began the season 1975/76 a steady rise in sport. Nine championship goals followed shortly after the beginning of the following season, the move to the second division to Nottingham Forest , which was coached by Brian Clough at the time.

Within two seasons Withe rose to the top English league with his new club and won the English championship there straight away. Nevertheless, he left at the beginning of the 1978/79 season his success site again and joined the second division club Newcastle United . As a result, he missed the double success of Nottingham Forest in the European Cup of National Champions 1978/79 and in the European Cup of National Champions 1979/80 . The promotion to the First Division was denied to him in the two years and Withe changed his club again in May 1980 - now in the direction of the first division Aston Villa .

Peter Withe (r), Gary Shaw and Tony Morley with the
European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1982

There he contributed 20 league goals in the 1980/81 season and was instrumental in ensuring that his club was able to win the championship. The following year Withe crowned his career by winning the European Cup and scored the decisive goal for his team's 1-0 victory in the 67th minute of the final against German champions FC Bayern Munich in the Rotterdam stadium “ De Kuip ”. Another highlight for him this year - shortly after his debut against Brazil on May 12, 1981 - was his participation in the 1982 World Cup in Spain . Although he was the first Aston Villa player to be nominated for a World Cup finals, he was not used in the tournament itself for the English national team.

In the following three years at Aston Villa Withe could not celebrate any further successes worth mentioning and moved to the second division Sheffield United in July 1985 . In November 1984 he had previously played his eleventh and last international match against Turkey and then ended his national team career (in total he only managed one goal against Hungary ). The now 34-year-old Withe played there until 1989 in the second and third division and then ended his football career at Huddersfield Town .

Coaching career

At Huddersfield Town, Withe also took over his first supervisory tasks from 1990 under the coach Eoin Hand and returned a year later to his place of work at Aston Villa , where he worked briefly under Jozef Vengloš . He then took over his first head coach position - after previous co-coaching activity - in October 1991 at Wimbledon FC as the successor to Ray Harford . There, however, he was only able to win one game in a total of four months and quickly went back to Birmingham to work there as chief scout in the junior division.

In 1998 he took over the office of national coach in Thailand , although the nation was banned from international matches at that time by the world football association FIFA - together with Indonesia. Both teams had refused to win a Tiger Cup game - which Indonesia ultimately won 1-0 with an own goal - because if they won, an away game against Vietnam in Hanoi had "threatened". Withe did basic football development work in Thailand and eventually led his team to two Tiger Cup trophies in 2000 and 2002. His engagement ended with a defeat against the United Arab Emirates , which failed to qualify for the Olympic football tournament in Athens. Superficially, however, the President of the Thai Football Association accused him of having dressed inappropriately by wearing shorts and suspended him in the further course of this "affair".

Withe moved with his wife to Perth , Australia , but only one year later accepted an offer from the Indonesian association to take over the national team there. Withe did important pioneering work there as well and also helped with the reconstruction of the country that was badly affected by the seaquake in the Indian Ocean .

successes

  • European champion cup: 1982
  • European Supercup winner: 1982
  • English champion: 1978 , 1981
  • Tiger Cup Winner: 2000, 2002


  • Foreign Player of the Year in South Africa: 1973

Web links