Support comes in but reality still bites for FA Cup pie man

Support is trickling in for the "roly-poly goalie" who resigned following an FA Cup tie for taking part in a gambling-related stunt.

Media heavyweight Piers Morgan and England football great Gary Lineker have tweeted support for 146kg Wayne Shaw, the pie-eating stopper who came a cropper.

Morgan said reserve goalkeeper Shaw's resignation was politically correctness gone mad, while Lineker lamented that a wholehearted club man had been hung out to dry.

But the Football association and Gambling Commission are not amused, and nor is Sutton United club chairman Bruce Elliott after the loss to Arsenal.

"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," Elliott told the Telegraph.

Sutton manager Paul Doswell said: "I'm devastated, the chairman is devastated. I have spoken to Wayne and the guy is in tears, crying down the phone. It is a very sad situation."

Before the match, a bookie offered odds of 8 - 1 that Shaw would eat a pie on camera. Shaw knew of the promotion, and duly obliged by tucking into a pie late in the game having told mates about the betting chance.

But the fun and the fairytale have turned sour for the non-league club, with Shaw forced to resign and the story dominating British sports coverage.

Another England legend Alan Shearer, a BBC pundit, recalled Shaw was a Southampton youth team mate.

Shearer said: "I actually followed my dreams to the Premier League, and he followed his to the burger van."

So Wayne Shaw, who slept on a sofa 3 nights a week at Sutton to maintain and run the place loses his job over #piegate. FFS!

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) February 21, 2017

How many of us wouldn't look after a few mates with 8/1 odds on eating a pie? We'd all be on the gravy train.

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) February 21, 2017

This Wayne Shaw sacking just about sums up the pathetically PC-crazed world we now have to endure. Shame on you, Sutton United.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 21, 2017

Sutton United have sacked Wayne Shaw. For eating a pie.
What a pathetic bunch of clowns.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 21, 2017