Exclusive: Peter Withe pays tribute to his former strike partner and fellow Aston Villa legend Gary Shaw, who sadly passed away earlier this week
“‘You’ll have to cross me before you get to him’,” Peter Withe would warn battle-hardened centre-halves who’d try to ruffle up Gary Shaw, but in truth, few would be able to get near him if they had the chance.
Fleet-footed with an eye for goal, Shaw was one of the best forwards to have pulled on the famous claret and blue shirt, and alongside Withe, their lethal partnership became folklore. The talented strikers delighted Villa Park crowds with their goals which helped fire the club to success in the early 1980s.
They were an unstoppable force during the title-winning campaign of 1980-81 and played together in seven of Aston Villa’s eight matches during their European Cup triumph a year later. In the final against Bayern in Rotterdam, Shaw combined with winger Tony Morley to create the only goal of the match for Withe.
Kingshurst-born Shaw was the only local lad in Villa’s European Cup-winning squad, and resonates with a generation of supporters for that reason. The club remains in mourning after Shaw’s passing earlier this week and paid tribute to his legacy as a footballer and a man on Saturday, when Unai Emery’s side beat Wolves 3-1 at home.
The 3-0 win and performance against BSC Young Boys a day after Shaw’s passing was also one which he would’ve loved as his name was sung in the streets of Bern and in the stands throughout Villa’s first match back among the European elite. The home game with Bayern Munich – a repeat of the 1982 European Cup final – will be an emotional night for everyone who had the pleasure of knowing Gary, and supporters alike, many of whom grew up watching him and Withe strike fear into opposition defences.
“I went back to the UK this time last year and had a great time meeting all the Villa players who I hadn’t met for a number of years,” Withe begins. “I obviously met up with Gary again and it was just brilliant.
“I’m over in Australia and it was a big shock to the system when I was first told of Gary’s condition. I’ve really been in shock about it all. He was the youngest player, and unfortunately the first to pass away from that team which is a very sad situation.
“He was taken far too early unfortunately. He was a lovely lad, family-committed and proud of what he had achieved as a local boy too.”
Shaw signed a professional deal on his 18th birthday in 1979 before becoming a first-team regular in the following season. He only missed two league games in 1979-80, the campaign before Villa won their first top-flight title in 71 years.
Withe arrived at Villa on the eve of that title-winning season after the club paid a then-club record £500,000 for his signature. Shaw had his first taste of senior football two years before Withe’s arrival from Newcastle United, who was the “last piece in the jigsaw” for Ron Saunders and a mentor for his junior strike partner, even if he didn’t expect to be at the time.
“When I agreed to join Aston Villa, initially I was told that I would be playing front with Brian Little,” Withe reveals. “But Brian had a knee injury and we never played together. Then, all of a sudden, Gary was thrust into the limelight to play up front with me.
“He was a great talent, he could score goals, was a great finisher and we hit it off as soon as we started playing together. It was like a telepathic connection between us. We knew where each other was. In that year we won the championship, we scored 38 goals combined.”
Withe bagged a total of 90 goals in over 200 appearances for Villa, but his game was about much more than just goals. A 10 years age gap to his partner Shaw, Withe was the perfect foil to the poster boy of Villa’s golden generation.
“Of course, I was a bit of a fitness fanatic so I do a lot of the running for him sometimes, but I was also his minder,” Withe explains. “If a centre-half tried to threaten him, then it was up to me to look after him. He was young and up and coming. In those days, centre-halves would always threaten that they’d kick you off the park and all of those things.
“You knew that opposition players were just trying to stop him playing, so in general, when you’ve got someone scoring goals, the first thing you try to do is upset them and say things to put them off. It was my job to keep him on the straight and narrow, really.
“When you’re 19 or 20 you believe certain things, but he had people around him like myself to tell him to keep his feet on the ground, saying there’s a long way to go in this football game. The penny dropped on numerous occasions.”
Withe continues: “We blended together and played well together. I’d like to think I helped bring him through with regards to learning a bit more about the game. He was a good looking lad too with blonde hair, so people would try and pester him a little bit.
“It was just a case of keeping him focused on his football and ignoring everything else which was going on. All credit to him, he adhered to those rules. Ron Saunders, who was the manager at the time, not only did he keep Gary in line, but also the likes of Tony Morley and Gordon Cowans.
“I suppose they may have resented it at the time, thinking he might have been dogmatic, but then they would have realised how important it was, the education he was giving them about staying focused on the job which was to win a championship. I did it on the field and Ron did it off the field.
“Every player knew their roles and Gary was an intricate cog in that team. He knew that he was playing up front with me and that I was going to keep him in line. We would always go out to work as hard as we can because you needed strikers who were going to score goals.”
On August 30, 1980 – Withe’s 29th birthday – Shaw scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Coventry City at Villa Park. It was one of the 18 goals he’d contributed to Villa’s league Championship triumph that season, which also helped him win the PFA Player of the Year.
Withe, meanwhile, scored 20 times in 36 games to finish joint-top scorer in the league with Tottenham Hotspur’s Steve Archibald in his first campaign for Villa.
“I’ve had different partnerships throughout my career, like with Trevor Francis and Tony Woodcock, but the difference with Gary and myself – probably because of me being the way I was with the experience I had – was that it was my job to keep him right, but we struck up this understanding that worked very well for the amount of years we played together,” Withe remembers.
“We were renowned for that lethal partnership and it’s what people speak about. You had Garth Crooks and Steve Archibald at Tottenham and Paul Mariner and Alan Brazil at Ipswich, but I’d like to think that in our championship-winning year, we were the most lethal of partnerships.”
Withe’s experience didn’t only rub off on Shaw, but across the whole dressing room. He won a trophy in each of his three seasons at Villa and his impact on the younger players in the squad is something which he looks back on with great pride.
“Ron had senior players and he was of the opinion that he’d let those players get on and organise the dressing room,” With explains. “If you weren’t doing that, then he would have done it. But I’d already been through that before.
“I played for Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough, won a championship and League Cup. I’d been through the same things, playing up front with Woodcock and with Francis previously. It was in my DNA.”
Shaw, a lifelong Villa fan like his father who he accompanied to matches in his youth, realised his dreams at an early age. He was handed the iconic number eight shirt by his idol Brian Little and lifted the two biggest club prizes available to him at domestic and European level.
“The big thing about Gary too was that he was a local lad and I think he sort of epitomised Birmingham,” Withe says. “ He had this playboy image and I think a lot of people portrayed him like that.
“When we were together, just me and him as individuals, we had an appreciation of each other and I think that was the important factor. We had a mutual respect for each other and on many occasions he would say to me, ‘thanks for being my minder’.
“He was the local lad who came good. I think that’s where a lot of Villa supporters remember him for.”
