NASA relieved as Emson gives up penalty duty

AFTER his miss from the spot against Morpeth Town on Saturday, Northallerton Town striker Adam Emson has announced he is now off penalty duty, much to the relief of local residents and even NASA.

The 28 year old, signed from Stokesley SC this summer, has enjoyed a great start to his Town career with 7 goals in the opening 5 matches - including a hat-trick up at Alnwick - but he has failed to find the target from 2 of his 3 penalties this season and has decided enough is enough.

"I took some stick for the miss against Morpeth, and rightly so," he said.

"I scored at Alnwick with a driven penalty so I thought I would do the same again. Unfortunately it didn't come off this time so that's it for me and penalties now."

That stoppage time spot kick against Morpeth not only failed to find the target but also posed a risk to passing aircraft and was even spotted by NASA radars.

A spokesman for Durham/Tees Valley Airport said, "We are pleased to hear Mr. Emson has decided to stop taking penalties. A state of emergency was called at 4.45pm on Saturday when an unexplained round object was discovered in our flight zone over Northallerton.

"At first we thought it was a UFO and alerted NASA, so we were relieved to find it was only a football. When we later found out it was a penalty taken by Mr. Emson, we were concerned this would become a regular occurrence, so we are literally 'over the moon' to hear he will not be taking them any more."

After an extensive search of the area, the ball was finally discovered in a back garden in Sadberge, near Darlington, on Monday afternoon.

The householder, who did not want to be named, said, "We were shocked to find the ball in our garden as we live nowhere near a park or a football stadium.

"When we discovered the ball had come all the way from Northallerton we were a little shocked to say the least, but thankfully it did not cause too much damage, just flattened a few of our daffodils."

Town are now on the look out for a new penalty taker and a NASA spokesman has urged them to choose carefully.

"We do not want an international incident every time Northallerton are awarded a penalty, so we hope the new taker will be able to keep the ball inside the stadium," he said.

Town would like announce there is no truth in the rumour they are set to make the goals bigger before Saturday's match against Horden just in case a new taker cannot be found.

We will keep you updated with any further developments.