Sutton have promised that reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw will be brought 'back down to earth' after he enjoyed five minutes of fame by eating a pie on the substitutes' bench during Monday night's glamour FA Cup tie against Arsenal.
The 46-year-old, known as the 'roly-poly goalie', pulled off the publicity stunt on behalf of a bookmaking company after all three substitutions had been made, but the actions of the 20st Shaw did not seem to impress the club's hierarchy.
Speaking on BBC 5 Live, chairman Bruce Elliott said: "If you knew the roly poly goalkeeper you probably wouldn't be very surprised. But Wayne is a top man.
"I didn't know anything about it. He has got himself in the papers again and the fame obviously has gone to his head a little bit, but we will soon bring him back down to earth, don't worry about that."
A bookmaker had offered a price of 8-1 to Shaw eating a pie "live on air" during the match, but Shaw denied that he or any of his team-mates had placed a bet.
Speaking to the Independent, Shaw said: "A few of the lads said to me earlier on, 'What is going on with the 8-1 about eating a pie?' I said, 'I don't know, I've eaten nothing all day, so I might give it a go later on'."
"As I say what is that? Sun Bets had us 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."
Manager Paul Doswell, who also employs Shaw as part of his coaching team, said: "Wayne has become a global superstar on the back of being 20st. He's made that a chance to get more media coverage off the back of it. It wouldn't surprise me. I don't think it shows us in the best light."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel