Editing Peter Withe (section)

====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 F.C.|Preston North End]]<ref>Preston North End v Bristol City football programme, 27 December 1971, p. 12 – this confirms Withe had appeared for the reserves</ref> but soon moved on to Barrow for whom he made one appearance (against his former club Southport on 1 January 1972).<ref>Rothmans Football Yearbook 1972–1973 (published 1972), p. 87, Queen Anne Press</ref> 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.<ref name=nb>[http://www.neilbrown.newcastlefans.com/player/peterwithe.html 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 (NASL)|Portland Timbers]] of the [[North American Soccer League (1968–1984)|North American Soccer League (NASL)]].<ref name="Horner2009">{{cite book|author=Matthew Horner|title=He Shot, He Scored: The Official Biography of Peter Ward|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fp1qKuNF7ssC&pg=PA30|year=2009|publisher=ebookpartnership.com|isbn=978-0-9562769-0-2|pages=30–}}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> 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".<ref name="Orr2011">{{cite book|author=Michael Orr|title=The 1975 Portland Timbers: The Birth of Soccer City, USA|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xKwretQccJkC&pg=PA24|date=21 November 2011|publisher=The History Press|isbn=978-1-60949-466-7|pages=24–}}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> 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|Soccer Bowl '75]], the League Championship final, in San Jose, California on 24 August, where they lost to the [[Tampa Bay Rowdies (1975–1993)|Tampa Bay Rowdies]] 2–0.<ref name="Peters2015">{{cite book|author=Paul Peters|title=Aston Villa The England Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Gg_CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA76|date=8 February 2015|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-326-16557-4|pages=76–}}{{self-published source|date=May 2021}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=February 2020}}

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.