Mogul Pete on balti pie mission

Speaking as the pie celebrates it 10th anniversary after being launched at Walsall in 1997, he says he has even entertained some of the football world's top directors with the tasty pies.

The music producer, who helped big names such as Kylie and Jason Donovan, even used to sneak on board away teams' coaches to deposit a box of pies in the hope of giving his beloved Saddlers an advantage.

And he has revealed that one attempt to tempt West Ham players with a pie ended up with a stern telling-off from then-manager Harry Redknapp.

Pete has also been seen live on Sky Sports encouraging football presenters to try some of the Black Country's most unusual recipes as well as trying to coax popular Geordie TV presenters Ant and Dec to have a go too.

He said today: "I used to put boxes of the balti pies on the buses of the visiting teams so they would eat them before the match in the hope they would scoff them before the match and give Walsall an advantage.

"But one time when I tried to do the same thing at West Ham, when I left about 20 pies in their changing room, I got a right old talking to from Harry Redknapp.

"I do think I am the ambassador for the pie but the sad thing is I can't even eat them anymore without getting heartburn.

"I love the football and I love the club for having this chicken balti pie and I have managed to get other teams to take them on including Man City, QPR and Crystal Palace. I know a lot of people and have been into the boardrooms to give them to the directors as well.

"I remember once when I was at Man City for one of my meetings with the directors and we were sitting there eating them. Later on we had a table booked at a posh restaurant but I sneaked out and got a box of them so we could eat them before.

"Ten years ago when I talked about them people thought I was making them up and even Ant and Dec asked me what they were. They thought I was pulling their leg."

Around 60 football and rugby clubs, Arsenal and Aston Villa included, now order batches from their home at Shire Foods, Warwick, with bakers cooking 100,000 a week just to cope with increasing demand.

The top-secret recipe was changed in 2005 to make it even healthier.