“A pair of scumbags” stole the tip jar from Piebury Corner before Arsenal’s match with Blackpool on Wednesday night.

The pie shop, hugely popular with Gunners fans, is now appealing for help in tracking down the thieves, who swiped the jar at about 6.40pm as staff at the Holloway Road branch prepared for the pre-match rush.

Manager Julie McKenna tweeted a CCTV still of a man and woman from the shop’s account on Wednesday night. In it, the man appears to put something under his arm before walking out.

Julie now wants anyone with information to come forward. “It’s close to people’s hearts”, she said. “All the staff in here work really hard and they deserve their tip money.”

Julie said the couple in question were “being a bit distracting” and the woman was “asking for all the prices and the differences between hot and cold pies”.

She estimated between £20 and £30 was stolen. Staff regularly empty the jar, so it is likely a substantial amount of the money had been donated that evening, especially considering that it was a match night.

However, the good news is staff will not miss out. Owners Paul and Nicky tweeted on Wednesday night that Piebury Corner will replace the stolen tips itself after one fan suggested that customers donate to replace the lost funds.

Piebury Corner was victim of a similar crime a few years ago and now Julie believes the only solution is to chain up their tip jar.

She joked that she would actually “like to buy something that when someone tried to remove it from the counter it would just cut their fingers off”. She added: “Holloway is full of wrong’uns at the moment”.

When asked why she has not reported the incident to the police, she highlighted the positive reaction on social media, as well as the lengthy online process of reporting petty crimes.

“I fear that small businesses will not want to report petty crime in the future”, she said. “But hopefully they [police] pick it up on social media and if they know these people they can go and pick them up!”