Peter WITHE | 1981-1982 | PES Stats Database (Golden Era Backup)

WITHE PES STATS | 1981-1982

electric_trigger Peter WITHE | 1981-1982 Club: Aston Villa Number: 9 Position: CF* Nationality: English Era: 1981-1982, aged 30 Foot: L Side: B Length: 185 Weight: ? Attack: 85 Defence: 43 Balance: 87 Stamina: 83 Top Speed: 84 Acceleration: 85 Response: 85 Agility: 82 Dribble Accuracy: 80 Dribble Speed: 83 Short Pass Accuracy: 77 Short Pass Speed: 75 Long Pass Acc: 72 Long Pass Speed: 73 Shot Accuracy: 85 Shot Power: 86 Shot Technique: 83 Free Kick Accuracy: 58 Curling: 75 Header: 88 Jump: 86 Technique: 80 Aggression: 87 Mentality: 86 Keeper Skills: 50 Team Work: 85 Injury Tolerance: B Condition/Fitness: 6 Weak Foot Accuracy: 5 Weak Foot frequency: 5 Special Scoring* Post Player* Positioning* Peter Withe (born 30 August 1951 in Liverpool, Lancashire) is a much-travelled English footballer who played as a striker, between 1971 and 1990. The highlights of his career came at Aston Villa, where he was a key player in the Football League title triumph of 1980–81 and scored his side's only goal in their 1982 European Cup Final victory. Playing career 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). The lynchpin of a strong attack, the big Liverpudlian scored 17 goals and added 7 assists in 22 games to lead the Timbers to first place in their division and a tie for the best record in the league at 16–6. 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, where they lost to the Tampa Bay Rowdies 2–0. Withe won the Football League First Division championship with Nottingham Forest but then left on the verge of their European Cup glory to join Newcastle United, then in the Second Division. Brian Clough, keen to raise funds to bring in Trevor Francis from Birmingham City, took the chance to quadruple his money, selling the powerful striker to Newcastle for £200,000. The Magpies were Withe's ninth club in less than eight years. Ron Saunders took him to Aston Villa on the eve of the 1980–81 season when the Midlands club forked out £500,000 on the journeyman 29-year old striker, the club's record signing at the time but a snip considered the service he gave them over the next five years. His decision to choose Villa in that Summer of 1980 raised a few eyebrows and shocked his nearest and dearest, for amongst the seven teams chasing his signature were Everton, his boyhood side. ''I had watched them as a kid. I used to sell programmes outside the ground,'' he remembered. ''My family and friends couldn't believe it when I turned down Everton!'' But the Toffees were a team in transition, and Ron Saunders sold Villa to Withe as genuine title challengers, despite the side having just finished seventh. Withe, said Saunders, was the final piece in the jigsaw and, as usual, he was right! Withe formed a deadly and almost telepathic partnership up front with young starlet Gary Shaw, and he netted 20 times in 36 games to finish joint-top scorer in the league with Tottenham Hotspur's Steve Archibald in that first season as Aston Villa went on to win the Football League title. Withe was also the scorer of Villa's winner against Bayern Munich in the European Cup final of 1982, the most important match in the club's history. Not that it was a classic finish! ''Peter says to this day he meant it,'' says winger Tony Morley. ''But I can tell you now it came off his shin.'' Morley should know better than anyone. It was his drilled pass that left Withe with the simplest of opportunities (although that description does the Number 9 no justice; only the best strikers find space to have simple opportunities against defences of the quality of Bayern Munich). Withe, however, maintains there was no luck involved - even if he does admit it wasn't as sweetly-struck as many of the goals that had fired Villa to that final, and the league before it. ''I told myself to concentrate 150%,'' he said later. Then, just as I was about to make contact, it hit a divot and bobbled. I followed through and hit it with my shin. A moment's doubt? Apparently not. ''As soon as I connected, I knew it was going in, even though it went in off the post.'' ''If he had connected properly, the goalkeeper might have made a save but the way it bounced off his shin, he had no chance,'' remembers Morley. And Aston Villa became the fourth English team to win the biggest trophy in club football. After five years, he eventually moved on to Sheffield United, in what he later described as ''the biggest wrench of my career.'' Capped by England 11 times, Withe scored once, and was also the first-ever English player representing Aston Villa to feature in a World Cup Finals squad (in España 82 The final piece in Villa's championship-winning side of 1980-81, Withe was worth every penny of what was then a club record £500,000. His 20 goals were a key factor in the title triumph - although none was quite as memorable as his winner in the 1982 European Cup final against Bayern Munich. A much travelled striker, the best years of Withe's career were undoubtedly at Villa Park. He eventually played more than 200 games, scoring 90 goals, later returning as assistant boss to Jozef Venglos and then as chief scout. Peter WITHE | 1981-1982 | PES Stats Database (Golden Era Backup)