I did not doubt that the suggestion was coming from a good place, but I was surprised by how much I did not want to, and it was not (necessarily) because I thought I was going to lose money. 

We played on, wager-less. (Although not lager-less).

Obviously an expensive course of counselling has now brought me to a position where I feel able to share this traumatic incident and, perhaps, to help others faced with similarly challenging dilemmas in their life.

But setting aside my humanitarian instincts, I actually felt, at that moment, the difference between money and fun. Money ruins fun.

Some people might have found the sight of a 23-stone substitute goalkeeper eating a pasty as he sat on the bench during Monday's FA Cup fifth round match fun. 

Some might have found it an unamusing cliché.

But the fun option disappeared once it emerged that money, thanks to the ersatz match sponsors of the day, Sun Bets, was involved.

Offering odds of 8-1 on the mountainous Wayne Shaw eating a pie during the fifth round match between his team Sutton United, from the fifth tier of English football, and Premier League giants Arsenal, may have been described as a fun bet.

And Shaw may have insisted he only did it for "the banter" after it had been a topic of conversation in the Sutton dressing room before the match.

But these odds were not a calculation, they were an invitation. A direct invitation to the hapless Shaw to do what he did.

This is not to say that Shaw - who has now been obliged to resign from his beloved club - or any of his team-mates put money on it. But some people did, as Sun Bets have reported paying out a five-figure sum.

By effectively dictating the action, by utilising someone who was in a position to directly affect whether the action came to pass or not, Sun Bets have distorted the legitimate position of a bookmaker.

That five-figure wedge is the thin end of a dangerous wedge. What would happen if, the next time they decide to buy up and brand up a sporting event that has caught the nation's imagination (how was this allowed?) Sun Bets decide to offer odds on whether X will miss a penalty; or bowl a wide; or lose a round; or drop a set?

All sports are vulnerable. Some parts of the sporting world appear more on their guard against the potentially eroding effect of gambling which is now being encouraged to the point of dependency within football.

In 2006, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) formalised rules banning all those with accreditation from betting on Olympic competitions. Then IOC President, Jacques Rogge, spoke out about the dangers of betting at the Games and ruled that he would never allow a bookmaker to sign up as a sponsor.

A year before the London 2012 Olympics, the potential threat to competition as a result of the demands of illegal gambling prompted Rogge to declare: "sport is in danger".

He had in mind more serious abuses than anything that happened at Gander Green Lane this week. But the glorious sport that did take place at that neat little non-league ground has now been besmirched.

Of course what Shaw did had no effect on the match result. But it partially spoiled what should have been a memory that Sutton United would always be proud to set alongside their 1989 FA Cup giant-killing act at the very same ground against Coventry City, then of the top tier in English football.

Once you start effectively to manipulate sporting events, even in what appears a relatively small way, you are on a slippery slope.

Setting aside for a moment the moral validity of this bet, there have been some respected figures in the non-league game who have objected to the stunt, saying it was envisaged and encouraged as a witless depiction of this level of football, putting it on a par with pub football. The Vanarama National League is just one division beneath the Football League (beneath Sky Bet League Two, that is).

"Integrity in sport is not a joke and we must establish exactly what happened," said the Gambling Commission's enforcement and intelligence director Richard Watson. "We’ll be looking into any irregularity in the betting market and establishing whether the operator has met its licence requirement to conduct its business with integrity."

The reaction of many to this incident, nevertheless, has been along the lines of:"Get over it! It's all a bit of fun and banter. We're talking about a pasty, for God's sake. Get real!"

On this line, former England footballer and current day football pundit Gary Lineker has tweeted: "So Wayne Shaw, who slept on a sofa three nights a week at Sutton to maintain and run the place loses his job over #piegate. FFS!"

And again: "Day by day football is losing its heart and its sense of humour. #piegate".

But we are not talking about a pie, or a pasty. Or banter. We are talking about money, and temptation. And distortion. About corruption, in fact.

We are also talking about a victim. Shaw has acted thoughtlessly, even foolishly. But he has been set up and used.

Bookies are not actually interested in fun. Their grins are always fixed.