Wayne Shaw (born 13 January 1972) is an English former semi-professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Shaw was nicknamed "Roly Poly Goalie", owing to being .

Career

Shaw started in football at Southampton's academy as a centre half, where he was teammates with future England internationals

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer (born 13 August 1970) is an English Association football, football pundit and former professional player who played as a striker (association football), striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of all time and one of t ...

and

Matt Le Tissier Matthew Paul Le Tissier (; born 14 October 1968) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. Le Tissier spent his entire professional club career with Southampton F.C., Southampton, before turning to non- ...

. He was then sent on loan for two years to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

. He was later released by Southampton for being overweight. He then moved to Basingstoke Town and was loaned to Bashley where he transitioned into a goalkeeper. From there he went to AFC Lymington and in 1999 moved to AFC Totton because of family commitments. By 2005, he had moved to

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the United Kingdom 2011 census, 2011 census. The town ...

where he saved a penalty during their Isthmian Premier League play-off final which helped Eastleigh get promoted into the

Conference South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 of the NLS and sixth-highest ti ...

for the first time. In 2010, he moved to Sutton United alongside Eastleigh's manager Paul Doswell but returned to Eastleigh as a player-coach two years later. During his career, Shaw would often be subject to the " Who ate all the pies?" football chant. While playing for Sutton United, Shaw was involved in an altercation with fans of Kingstonian prior to a

Surrey Senior Cup The Surrey Senior Cup is the senior Saturday cup competition of the Surrey FA. It is currently competed for by teams playing in the top nine levels of the English football league system who are affiliated to the Surrey FA. The competition was i ...

match in December 2013 where he jumped over advertising hoardings and headbutted a fan who was insulting him about his weight. He was released by Sutton following the incident. Following a brief period with Gosport Borough, where he was the goalkeeping coach for their FA Trophy final appearance against Cambridge United, he was re-signed by Sutton in February 2015 until his departure in February 2017. He subsequently retired after his departure.

"Piegate" controversy

On 20 February 2017, Sutton lost 2–0 to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the fifth round of the

2016–17 FA Cup The 2016–17 FA Cup (also known as the FA Challenge Cup) was the 136th edition of the oldest recognised football tournament in the world. It was sponsored by Emirates, and known as The Emirates FA Cup for sponsorship purposes. 736 clubs were acc ...

. During the match, Shaw ate a

pasty A pasty () or Cornish pasty is a British baked turnover pastry, a variety of which is particularly associated with Cornwall, but has spread all over the British Isles, and elsewhere through the Cornish diaspora. It consists of a filling, ty ...

, described as a "pie" in reports, while sitting on the bench, even though he knew that a betting company was offering 8–1 odds against him eating a pie on television.

The Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

investigated a possible breach of their rules relating to betting, and the

Gambling Commission The Gambling Commission is an executive, non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for regulating gambling and supervising gaming law in Great Britain. Its remit covers arcades, betting, bingo, casin ...

investigated whether there were any unusual patterns of betting and whether the company had operated within its licence. Shaw resigned from Sutton United after the investigations were announced. Following his resignation, the supermarket chain

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the List of supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Sco ...

offered Shaw a job as an official "pie-taster". Later, a petition was launched by the blogger Paul Staines for Shaw to be given his job at the club back. In Sutton United's first game after his departure, they were forced to use an outfield player in goal when their first choice goalkeeper was injured, having had no time to sign a replacement for Shaw. On 6 September 2017 Shaw was fined £375 and banned for two months by the FA for breaching their betting rules.

References

External links

Eurosport profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Wayne 1972 births Living people Footballers from Southampton English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Basingstoke Town F.C. players Gosport Borough F.C. players Wimborne Town F.C. players Bashley F.C. players Bournemouth F.C. players Totton & Eling F.C. players A.F.C. Lymington players A.F.C. Totton players Eastleigh F.C. players Sutton United F.C. players Fleet Town F.C. players Alresford Town F.C. players National League (English football) players Isthmian League players Sportspeople involved in betting scandals Association football goalkeeping coaches