Hi, this is Jonny Gould. I’m a lifelong Aston Villa fan, born in the city centre of Birmingham. 

My first game in 1977, was less than auspicious, a 4-1 midweek thrashing under the famous AV floodlights by a Dennis Tueart inspired Manchester City.

But it got a whole lot better over the coming seasons and a key reason for that was Ron Saunders and his inspired signing of Peter Withe for a hefty half a million pounds from Newcastle in the summer of 1980. 

His arrival lifted us from three consecutive flatlining seasons of 8th, 8th and 7th finishes to champions of England and the miracle of Rotterdam the season after. 

All For The Love Of The Game is one of the best football autobiographies I’ve ever read. And Peter Withe’s story is one of sheer determination to succeed wherever that road took him - from Liverpool to South Africa, the USA, back home – and then out again to the Far East.

And boy, did he succeed! At the very highest level: twice a league title winner, a European champion, who scored the winning goal in the final and a full England international. The champagne bubbles of his greatest moments have never quite receded for this Aston Villa fan! 

It’s also a love story because Peter couldn’t have achieved any of this without his devoted wife Kathy by his side through the years.

The game gave Peter mobility and life experience which would surely not have been possible had he never donned football boots. That’s another part of this great story.

For any fan of Villa or Nottingham Forest, reading this autobiography is a must – but it’s also for those who want to understand what it takes to succeed at the top of any line of business, not just football.

Author Simon Goodyear captures the drama and life decisions Peter and Kathy had to take with page-turning ease

And it gave me this chance to present a four part series, sitting down with Peter to discuss it all.

To think, the Liverpool-born striker succeeded at the highest level of club football with the two teams who disrupted the Reds’ domestic domination of the 70s and 80s, with Forest and then Villa. 

Although he wouldn’t mind that much, he grew up an Evertonian!

So let’s start where it all started. On Merseyside as an electrician on the docks. 

Coming up in part 2 of All for the Love of the game, “why I left league champions, Nottingham Forest for then second division Newcastle”

The All for the Love of the Game podcast is a Krafty Entertainment production in association with Radio and Social Media Broadcasting

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