So who did eat all the pies?

The portly 45-year-old Shaw, who found his moment of fame as the substitute on the Sutton bench caught snarfing down a pie, was sacked by the club and is officially listed in his profile as “retired”. But he claims he did it to wind up Arsenal and insists none of his mates benefitted from the 8/1 odds on offer that he would do just that as the Gunners swept into the FA Cup quarterfinals.

Predictably, the cliched cry of “who ate all the pies”, which has greeted players such as Paul Gascoigne when he looked to be carrying some condition, rung out across an amused nation. The Football Association, his manager Paul Doswell and his club were less amused and Shaw is destined to sink into the realm of sporting history’s enigmas.

But to prove there is nothing new under the sun, the man who legend would have it spawned the “who ate all the pies” chant from the terraces was a larger-than-life character who played professional football in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, predating Shaw by over a century.

William “Fatty” Foulke was a towering 1.94m by most estimates.

As a figure between the goalposts though, it was his girth which defined Foulke. His weight – never much below 135kg – wavered above 150kg at the end of his career in 1907.

But as a player, Foulke’s career leaves Shaw’s in the deep afternoon shadow of mediocrity. He was good enough to win a single England cap, against Wales in 1897.

After being discovered playing for village side Blackwell in a Derbyshire Cup tie at Ilkeston Town, Foulke made his debut for the Blades against West Bromwich Albion on September 1, 1894 and led the team to three FA Cup finals – winning two – and a League Championship.

A man with a temper to match his physique, Foulke protested in the 1902 Cup final that Southampton’s equalising goal should not have been allowed, left his dressing room unclothed and pursued the referee, Tom Kirkham, who had to be rescued from his refuge in a broom cupboard as Foulke tried wrenching the cupboard door from its hinges.

Stories, said to be apocryphal, would have it that he was eventually reduced to earning a pittance in a “beat the goalie” sideshow attraction in Blackpool.