Former Norwich City striker Ian Henderson recovered an embarrassing situation when playing for his League One team Rochdale at the weekend.

Henderson, originally from Thetford, was on penalty duty for Dale during their match away at Bradford City on Saturday – and decided to try a cheeky chip.

To the 29-year-old's horror, his chipped penalty hit the crossbar, despite having deceived Bradford's substitute goalkeeper Ben Williams. The keeper, who replaced Jordan Pickford after he was sent off for bringing down a Rochdale player in just the 12th minute of the game, had dived to his right.

The ball bounced straight back to Henderson, who instinctively looked like he was about to head home the rebounding ball into an empty net.

However, he remembered just in time that he was not permitted to touch the ball again under the laws of the game, and dived under the ball to allow team-mate Peter Vincenti to score.

That goal put Dale 1-0 ahead but former Blackburn striker Jon Stead equalised for Bradford in the 32nd minute. Henderson was replaced in the 66th minute with the score still at 1-1 but Calvin Andrew then popped up with a dramatic winner for Dale in the 90th minute.

The result leaves Keith Hill's side in eighth place in the League One table, just two points outside the play-off places.

Henderson's quick thinking saved his blushes on this occasion but he has generally been enjoying a good season, after playing a key part in helping his team to promotion from League Two last season, scoring 12 goals in 52 games.

He is already close to bettering that total this season, with 10 goals in 27 matches so far this season.

Henderson later took to his Twitter account (@Hendo2401) to post a video of the penalty incident and said: 'Think on your feet! And do everything you can to get out the way of the ?ball?when your penalty comes back off the crossbar!

'Great win for the team away to Bradford and well done to Peter & Calvin with their goals.'