Pie-eating player may have landed Morrisons job

Wayne Shaw was asked to leave Sutton after the club lost to Premiership side Arsenal on Monday night.
Morrisons - one of the biggest supermarket chains in Britain - are said to have offered Shaw a job. An actual, proper job as their official pie-taster, with a salary of a year’s worth of pies.

Morrisons’ Chief Pie Buyer Tessa Callaghan reportedly said: “We’re always looking for the best talent to taste our pies and make sure they hit the back of the net.

Meanwhile, Sutton manager Paul Doswell has warned any of his staff face following Shaw out of the club if they placed bets on the reserve goalkeeper eating a pie during their FA Cup fifth-round defeat to Arsenal.

Shaw handed in his resignation today as he prompted a betting probe after he was shown on television tucking into the snack towards the end of the 2-0 loss - before admitting after the game he was aware that a bookmaker was offering odds on him to do so.

Both the Football Association and Gambling Commission announced independent investigations into the stunt, which Doswell condemned as “taking the gloss” off his side’s performance against a strong Gunners line-up.

After confirming Shaw’s departure, Doswell offered a stark warning to anyone else at Sutton who could have been embroiled in a potential breach of the FA’s gambling regulations.

“Unfortunately he didn’t really leave the board with any alternative on this one,” he told Sky Sports News.

“The mere fact that we have all been implicated as such, we are all being looked at as to whether we had a bet.

“None of the players were aware of this scenario, there was talk at half-time but you would have to have not been on a football pitch to make that bet - if any of our players, any of our staff have bet on that they will also suffer the same consequence.”

Doswell announced Shaw’s departure and revealed the 46-year-old had been left in tears following the fallout.

“Wayne has offered his resignation to the chairman this afternoon and that has been accepted. It’s a very sad end to what was a very good story,” he said.

“He’s absolutely devastated - tears down the phone this afternoon. There’s no joy and nothing good coming out of this particularly situation for him.

“A situation that had been such good fun in virtually every aspect until what happened last night.

“He’s done a fantastic job for the football club, but unfortunately if any of us put ourselves into Wayne’s position last night then you make your position pretty much untenable.

“I’d have advised him very, very differently. Unfortunately he chose not to speak to myself or the chairman or anyone about what was happening and he’s put himself in a very invidious position.”

Shaw admitted after the game that he believes some people placed money on the 8-1 on offer for him to be shown eating a pie in the dugout.

‘’A few of the lads said to me earlier on what is going on with the 8-1 about eating a pie,’’ he said.

‘’I said ‘I don’t know I have eaten nothing all day so I might give it a go later on’.

‘’As I say Sun Bets had me at 8-1 to eat a pie. I thought I would give them a bit of banter and let’s do it. All the subs were on and we were 2-0 down.

‘’I went and got it at half time from the kitchen, I had it all prepared and ready to go. It was meat and potato.

‘’I think there were a few people (who backed it). Obviously we are not allowed to bet.

“I think a few of the mates and a few of the fans. It was just a bit of banter for them. It is something to make the occasion as well and you can look back and say it was part of it and we got our ticket money back.’’

Doswell confirmed both the FA and Gambling Commission had been in touch with the club and feels the affair has taken something away from the non-league side’s big night.

“Of course we’ve been contacted by the FA, the betting commission, and it’s been a very sobering morning,” he said.

“At the moment it’s early days and it’s by way of e-mails and other bits and pieces but unfortunately it’s worldwide news this morning.

“It’s taken the gloss off my players’ performance and gone on to something it shouldn’t have gone on to. I feel very sorry for the players in many regards that that spotlight has been taken away from them.

“It was an honest error but one that’s had quite sad ramifications. Wayne’s been swept along with what’s happened in this last three or four weeks.

“Since the camera got him in the Leeds United game he’s gone into another world in terms of what he’s used to.

“I think he’s been ill-advised at times and he’s just made a very genuine mistake. If you knew him, he’s such a lovely, lovely man. His judgement wasn’t great last night and he’s obviously paid the price for that.”

The FA announced on Tuesday that it will launch an inquiry to determine whether Shaw breached its gambling regulations.

“We are investigating to establish whether there has been any breach of The FA rules relating to betting,” an FA spokesperson said.

There could also be fall-out for the bookmakers, with the Gambling Commission confirming its own investigation into the incident to decide whether Sun Bets had breached its licence requirement by offering such a bet in the first instance.

‘’Integrity in sport is not a joke and we have opened an investigation to establish exactly what happened,’’ Richard Watson, the commission’s enforcement and intelligence director, said in a statement.

‘’As part of that we’ll be looking into any irregularity in the betting market and establishing whether the operator has met its licence requirement to conduct its business with integrity.’’

There was further negative news in the aftermath of the cup tie, with Metropolitan Police confirming two arrests were made following a post-match pitch invasion, which saw stewards over-run by supporters streaming onto the artificial surface at Gander Green Lane.

Police confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that a 27-year-old man was arrested for pitch incursion while a 15-year-old male was arrested for breach of the peace.