Michael: Iwillbe cooking withGaz
MICHAEL SMITH has vowed to “smash up” boss Gary Anderson tonight and become King of the House.
The St Helens star is gunning for his own gaffer in the last 16 of the bwin Grand Slam.
Smith is managed by Scottish supremo Tommy Gilmour, who also takes care of the affairs of Scotland’s two-time world champion.
Anderson has acted as a mentor for his younger stablemate and the pair are sharing accommodation for the duration of the event in Wolverhampton.
Smith scraped into the knockout phase to join Anderson and now has the opportunity to send him out of the competition.
The English kid is loving the cross-flat jibes and said: “I want to get on to that stage and beat Anderson up.
“We are sharing the top floor of an apartment, so it’s nice to give him some stick for two days. If he beats me, fair play but I’m going to smash him up!”
Smith was giggling through his wind-ups but is serious about putting on a show against the world No.3.
The 27-year-old needed a big favour to get through the group stages and relied on Mensur Suljovic sinking James Wilson in the final game of the section to scramble into the next stage.
Suljovic did him a turn by winning a deciding leg and Smith said: “Before I said it didn’t matter who won. But when it got to 4-3 and 4-4, I was thinking, ‘please just let me get through’.
“Now I’m through, it feels like I have a second wind and I don’t want to ruin it.”
Peter Wright is also in last 16 action tonight when he faces Stephen Bunting.
The world No.2 had to settle for second spot in his group. Snakebite said: “I’m glad my darts worked under pressure against Alan Norris in my last game.”
East Kilbride’s Ross Montgomery’s hopes ended when he crashed to a 5-2 defeat to Rob Cross.