Pair serve up for town footballers

Dipa Jakhu, who made it through to the finals of Britain's Best Home Cook and cooked roast chicken for the show's presenters, Mary Berry and Chris Bavin, donned the apron alongside Dave Hindhaugh, head chef at Shrewsbury Town Football Club's Sundorne training ground.

The pair were busy prepping the dishes of the day - chicken breast Nicoise with green beans, egg and leaves and pasta with spicy tomato sauce and a dash of cumin.

Out on the grass, the team were being put through their paces by new town manager John Askew and were building up quite an appetite.

Dipa, a 44-year-old civil servant from Wolverhampton said she was more used to cooking for her husband and children but was delighted to have been invited along to cook alongside Dave.

"I am not used to cooking on this scale," she said. "And although we are cooking for about 40 people I am nowhere near as nervous as I was cooking for Mary Berry.

"This sort of food is not my typical style. I like to cook spicy food so that is why I said to Dave about adding cumin to the tomato sauce."

Dave said that the diet of a footballer had to be carefully managed. Through the week he had been increasing the amount of carbohydrate-rich food for the players to make sure they are match fit for their game against Bristol City today (SAT).

And while the diet is not as strict as that for teams in the Premiership, he works closely with local producers, including butchers and fishmongers, to ensure that the players, physios, coaches, the manager and medical staff get a fully balanced diet.

"I use a lot of fish and make fish noddles, fish in parsley sauce and other dishes. they also like chicken which is a great way of getting them to eat protein," he said. "It has been great to work alongside Dipa and learn some of her tricks. It will make the meals a bit more varied for everyone."

For today's game, Dave and Dipa have made chicken noddles and high protein flapjacks for the team to eat before their journey down the M5.