CULLEN STANDS BY SULJOVIC CHEATING CLAIM

JOE CULLEN has doubled down on his cheating allegation against Mensur Suljovic.

But ‘The Rockstar’ conceded that a large part of his frustration comes from a World Championship loss he felt was there for the taking.

World No.32 Cullen was furious after his second-round defeat to Suljovic at Ally Pally and later took to social media to accuse the Austrian of gamesmanship, citing deliberate slow play and excessive celebrations.

Cullen has since stood firm on his comments, maintaining his claims were valid despite being made in the heat of the moment.

He told Telegraph and Argus: “The game was there for me.

“It was a bit of a head loss from myself afterwards, though I still don’t agree with what Mensur does.

“I know he plays that way most of the time, but he was worse than usual.

“He even got warned by the referee, which I’ve never seen before, so I can point my finger at Mensur and say he was an a****ole.

“But ultimately, Mensur was poor and I let it affect me, which is more of a gripe on my part.

“I still personally think it is cheating.

“I’ve always said it since I started playing, if you’re doing something to deliberately affect the other player, I stand by believing that’s cheating.

“I’ve always got on with Mensur pretty well, so it was disappointing.

“He knew exactly what he was doing and he did exactly what I expected, just a little bit worse.

“Ultimately he was very poor and that’s the most frustrating thing for myself, because I should win that game comfortably.”

Cullen found little sympathy for his post-match outburst, with critics believing he once again let an opponent get inside his head.

The Bradford thrower accepted there may be an issue with how easily he gets rattled on the big stage.

He added: “Maybe there’s a little bit of that. I’ve been playing for a long time now and I think it was one of those games where I just got frustrated.

“Missing darts frustrates you even more, so it was a combination of things, Mensur doing what he did was probably just the tip of the iceberg.

“Now I’ve had a couple of days to reflect, the most frustrating thing for me is that I shouldn’t have lost the game.

“It shouldn’t even have been close.”

Cullen insists he will spend the coming weeks recharging and working on his game ahead of the new season.

He continued: “I can’t wait to be honest. I’ve not got any tournaments now until the end of January [Winmau World Masters) so I might look at going on holiday next month.

“Even if I don’t, I’ll just be spending time at home.

“I won’t pick my darts up again until about a week or two before the tournament, so I’ll have a solid four weeks away from the game.

“The door of my practice room will definitely be shut for the next four weeks.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.