Gary: Red-hot rivals snapping at my heels

GARY ANDERSON says it is rubbish to bank on him adding an elusive World Matchplay crown to his glittering career.

The Scottish hero goes into tonight’s quarter-final clash with Joe Cullen as red-hot favourite to be crowned king in Blackpool.

Michael van Gerwen’s stunning first-round exit has opened the door for Anderson to claim glory at the Winter Gardens but the two-times world champion reckons it’s nonsense to be pinpointing him as the obvious winner.

He said: “I don’t listen to the tournament favourite rubbish. There are too many good players left in to think about stuff like that.

“I don’t believe anything like it’s my year. You’ve still got players to beat and they can all beat you

“It means absolutely nothing who has gone out. Never count your chickens.

“You look at Joe, who is BY CRAIG SWAN playing fantastic, Jeffrey de Zwaan is doing great.

“Everyone thought it was a surprise him beating Michael but if you look at the last few tournaments it’s not really a shock. Jeffrey did him in the UK Open, all these boys can play darts.

“These are surprise results to the punters but not to the players, trust me. The new generation can pick off these results but then disappear for 10 months. They have to keep it going, that’s the hard bit.

“Joe’s playing really well. He’s fresh and will be tough to beat. He’s had good results and will be confident.”

Anderson will be roared on by another massive holiday contingent after the place was rammed with Saltires during his last-16 win over Raymond van Barneveld.

He repaid the backing with some unusually boisterous celebrations during the sensational fightback victory and said: “You don’t often see me do it but I enjoyed that.

“I stuck in well, I fought and got the result I wanted. I had a new set of darts and it was a big celebration because I was 4-1 and 7-4 down and dug in and came back.

“I didn’t panic. If you look at my face when I was trailing there was no panic. You’ve got to get 11. It doesn’t matter if you’re on seven, eight, nine legs, a boy can come back.

“If you slip off that little groove you’re on, it’s quite easy to lose the match.

“I was kicking myself that I should have gone into the break 5-5 and that probably helped get myself fired up for it. That really cheesed me off and that’s being polite.

“It’s great having so many Scots in the crowd, I thought it was an away match for Scotland. The Winter Gardens is so tightly packed, making it a great atmosphere. The fans were great.”