Saturday, 06 October 2001.
FA coach Peter Withe has ended his term as National Team coach of Thailand. The former Aston Villa hero has been stationed in the Far East for the last four years as part of The F.A.'s International Development Programme. With the secondment now having been completed - and Thailand's footballing fortunes dramatically revived - Withe will now be looking to apply his worldly football talents elsewhere.
Here TheFA.com looks back on Peter's experience as Thailand's coach.
Peter Withe left his role as head European scout at Aston Villa in 1998 to take up the management of the Thai national team at a time when Thai football was in disarray.
"I was missing the day to day involvement with players," Withe explained. "I was missing coaching. I felt that I was a good motivator and a good coach. I wanted to work with National players. When I found out it was Thailand, I thought to myself, What a great opportunity to help build a nation up, so I grabbed it with both hands."
His first task was to address motivation issues within the team itself, his players suffering from low morale and doubting their own abilities.
"When I first came here there seemed to be a little bit of a doubt when we played certain sides. Their technical skills were excellent, but maybe because of their own cultural background and the fact that most of the team are part-time players they felt a little bit inferior. So I said to them, and I believe in it, there's no one in the world that you can't beat as long as you're mentally prepared, to go out and face the challenge. It was definitely the first time that many of the players had ever been told to think like that"
But Withe's own confidence in achieving his goals and bringing the best from his players achieved immediate success with the Thailand team when it took the football world by surprise with a shock 2-1 victory over South Korea 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the Asian Games, and that with only 9 players on the pitch! From then on, the only way was up, with Thailand, under his leadership, victorious in the Tiger Cup and reaching the last 10 in the Asian qualification for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea-Japan. Earlier this year, Withe himself was nominated as AFC coach of the year - the first non-Asian to receive a nomination - only narrowly losing to Japan's Philippe Troussier in the final ballot.
Peter Withe's contract has now come to an end but it is with sadness that he leaves the team which is now ranked 6th in Asia. He will now no doubt be looking to create more history elsewhere.