Gutted Smith vows to come back fighting
By Phil Lanning
MICHAEL SMITH has vowed to keep fighting and come back stronger to win major silverware.
Bully Boy was gutted by his World Championship final defeat to Peter Wright a week ago.
It was the ninth time he had lost in a major final, but Smith said: “I am capable of winning anything I put my mind to as long as it my mind is on it and it doesn’t drift anywhere else. I will keep fighting and keep going until the next one.
“What happened last year, when I got left out of the Premier League and I kept moaning about it but the moment I forgot about it I tried showing the PDC and everyone why they left me out. You have to fight for everything and I did.
“I won a couple of tournaments and in the last couple of months everything fell into place. Setbacks are there for the comebacks.
“I could have fretted years ago when I lost the Premier League final. I could have thought it was not meant to be and I lost another and another.
“I keep fighting, I keep making finals – you can’t lose in a final if you are not in a final. I am always there battling.”
Smith also admits he is getting battle hardened to the setbacks that will serve him well in the future.
On the final itself, he added: “The that’s annoying is I let him play like that, I was 5-4 up and 2-0 up and I had the darts twice and both times I played rubbish. It’s one of them.
“I was just targeting the double sets and I won the first two and then I broke him in the third double and then I was 5-4 2-0 and the rest his history.
“I am thinking about it now I am coming down but during the game I was just keeping focused, ‘Keep throwing and next time I have to take my chance’. The game kept getting harder. I was trying, I never once gave up and then emotions took over at the end.
“The first final I lost 7-3, the second one I lost 7-5. The next one I’ll get seven and be champion. I am getting used to these setbacks but I’ll be back on the dartboard in a couple of days and I’m going to fight for it.”
Images by Taylor Lanning.