It wasn’t the Newcastle fans who ate them all; it wasn’t a localised potato blight, or a lack of stock that led to the great Etihad Stadium 'Chipgate scandal' over the weekend.

Saturday afternoon's lack of French Fries, Pommes Frites, Patatas Fritas, or even the humble chipped spud, spurred radio commentators and journalists at the Premier League game into making the story a real hot potato.

Temperatures soared to levels higher than those of a deep fat fryer but the truth is a lot less exciting than some of the conspiracy theories.

What caused the lack of starchy sustenance at the ground was simply that we didn’t have a gas supply into the kiosk fryers.

That left us being unable to provide this service at half-time, this in turn has left us with both a chip mountain and curry sauce lake.

It will all be fixed for the visit of Norwich - just in case Delia is on the prowl.