"I really wanted to succeed and I just wanted to be good" - Emma Paton opens up on the pressures of succeeding Dave Clark as face of Sky Sports Darts

The face of Sky Sports' coverage of the darts, Emma Paton was recently the latest guest on Wayne Mardle and William Hill's Club 501 podcast.

In the wake of former presenter Dave Clark being forced to retire due to Parkinson's disease, Sky Sports went through various different potential replacements before settling on the impressive Paton, as Mardle recalls. "Nigel Pearson bless him, he covered a Premier League, Andy Goldstein come in and then you. We needed some consistency and having just worked with you the once, and I'm not saying this just because you're here, I said if you don't get her now we've had it," Mardle tells Paton warmly. "No offence to anyone else, but the work was unbelievable. You just got it."

Read also

Emma Paton recalls how WWE legend gave her big break: "He introduced himself and said: ‘I might have an exclusive for you’"

Following in Dave Clark's footsteps were some big shoes to fill for Paton and the fact her emergence was happening during the Coronavirus pandemic added an extra layer of difficulty to proceedings. "That was even weirder, although sometimes I think because that was darts without a crowd, which is just not really darts is it? But it was, in some ways maybe a good introduction," the Englishwoman recalls. "I really wanted to succeed and I just wanted to be good."

Whilst Paton has long loved the sport of darts, it's football that remains her true passion however. A big Manchester United fan, she makes no attempt to hide the fact that presenting on the Premier League remains her dream job. "Football has always been the goal I think, presenting the biggest games,'' she admits to Mardle, who in turn responds with a laugh: "Well if you get a break, I'll try and stop it! 'She's not leaving the darts!'" Hawaii 501 chuckles.

"Look, I want to do darts forever, but I can also do different things," Paton clarifies, noting how the sport of darts itself is unquestionably on the rise at the moment. "The Premier League Darts this year has been crazy. There were some events some of our family or friends wanted to come to and it was like: 'Nope. There aren't any tickets left'. It's insane! But also even during the Worlds, I found that in other years, I leave there trying to tell people about the darts. Then this year, it was like you leave and you wouldn't hear the end of people saying 'have you seen this? Have you seen that?'"

Read also

"It's like watching your wife smooch another man": Former Sky Sports Darts presenter Dave Clark struggles to watch coverage after retirement

Mardle (L), Mark Webster (M) and Paton (R) on stage at the Premier League Darts