A football fan has described getting his hands on FA Cup Final tickets after they fell from space.

As part of a competition to send the famous match to a "new stratosphere", the pair of tickets to the Arsenal v Aston Villa game floated down to earth this morning.

They were attached to a balloon and sent to the stars, before it burst at about 7 this morning - sending the tickets towards Kent.

The hovered over the Tonbridge area before crossing the Kent border and landing in the village of Broad Oak in East Sussex at about 9.30am.

They were then picked up by the grandmother of Arsenal fan George Lamb while she was out walking her dog.

With George set to celebrate his birthday on Thursday, his grandmother was quick to make his birthday wishes come true and he will now be given a VIP experience as Arsene Wenger's Arsenal take on Tim Sherwood's Aston Villa.

He said: "When I woke up this morning the idea of going to the FA Cup Final hadn’t crossed my mind.

"Now, thanks to my grandma finding the tickets, I’m going on the ultimate adventure to Wembley on Saturday, although I’m sure the tickets’ adventure to space is certainly a close second!

"This will be my first time to Wembley and I’ve got butterflies at the prospect of it."

The FA followed their journey on Twitter using GPS technology, which revealed they hovered over the Tunbridge Wells area for a while before landing.

The tickets left Wembley at 6am today and went on a one-hour journey skywards before leaving the earth's atmosphere.

A spokesman said: "Assuming an Arsenal or Villa supporting extra-terrestrial does not discover them first, the tickets will then descend back to earth giving one lucky fan the chance to claim their place at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 30 May.

"These are not just any tickets though, the winner pair will get to be pitch-side pre-match and have their photo taken with the famous trophy."

The FA tweeted, via @FA, GPS signals from the balloon transporting the tickets to and from earth to give people clues as to the landing location.

The FA worked with flight experts SentIntoSpace.com on the unique mission.

Following approval from the Civil Aviation Authority, the tickets were launched from the centre circle at Wembley on board a specially tailored large meteorological balloon.

It endured harsh conditions on its journey to space and back, such as 100mph winds in the jet stream and temperatures plunging below -50C, before the parachute brought the tickets gently back to earth.

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