[11] 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).

[12] 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".

[13] 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 '75, the League Championship final, in San Jose, California on 24 August, where they lost to the Tampa Bay Rowdies 2–0.

In the summer of 1976 he was joined by Peter Taylor, who had been his assistant at Derby County in winning the 1971–72 Football League.

Tony Woodcock was recalled to the first team, bringing speed and anticipation to the front two to complement Withe's height, strength and power.

Forest's first trophy of the Clough and Taylor regime was in December that season beating Orient over two legs in the Anglo-Scottish Cup final.

After playing in the 1–1 league home draw the week after against Tottenham Hotspur, Forest agreed to sell him for £225,000 just before his 27th birthday at the end of that month.

[19] The number 9 jersey was then given to 22-year-old Garry Birtles who promptly became a regular first choice, winning the European Cup with Forest in this season and the following one.

Withe and Spurs' Mark Falco both scored twice sharing the 1981 FA Charity Shield from a 2–2 draw.

[14] The season after Withe played in the 1982 European Super Cup 3–1 aggregate win against FC Barcelona.

[25] Withe had a brief spell as manager of Wimbledon, being brought in from the position of reserve team coach at Aston Villa in October 1991 following Ray Harford's resignation.

Withe's time in charge was not at all successful, winning only one game out of thirteen in the league,[26] and after many players expressed their dislike of his methods, he was dismissed after just 105 days at the helm and replaced by the club's youth team coach Joe Kinnear.

He was given a brief touchline ban as manager of Thailand for wearing shorts during an international match against the United Arab Emirates.