HUMPHRIES WARNS DARTS RIVALS TO FIND THEIR BOTTLE OR RISK LITTLER CLEAN SWEEP

LUKE HUMPHRIES has warned darts rivals to "find their bottle" or risk Luke Littler completing a clean sweep of every major title.

The world No2 insists it cannot be left to him alone to halt the teen sensation from breaking yet another record.

Humphries, 31, heads into the World Matchplay in red-hot form, having reached NINE consecutive finals and beaten Littler to win last month's US Darts Masters.

In fact, Humphries has defeated The Nuke in four of their last five meetings on the oche.

But the Cheshire thrower believes the rest of the field must also start pushing the world champion if they are to stop his march towards another PDC Premier event crown.

He said: “He’s done fantastic over the last seven or eight months. His performances have been really good when they matter.

“That is all you can do in darts. You can have a few weeks of being average, but as long as you are good on the week that matters, he is very good at doing that.

“In the US Darts Masters, we had another great final, but I think sometimes his emotions and belief change when it comes to the big tournaments.

“He is much harder and tougher in these big majors. In the World Series events, it's not like he doesn't try, but he is more focused in the big tournaments.

“It is harder to topple him. Nobody wants to see him win every tournament because that means I have won nothing.

“For myself, I hope he doesn't do it, unfortunately for him. There is a great chance he could do it if nobody steps up and puts it to him because he is one of the best dart players I have seen in my whole entire life.

“He is a hard player to beat. You saw how I played in the final of the Premier League, and that was still not enough.

“For me, I always have the belief I can beat him. He has the belief he can beat me. But it can't just always be down to me to break the run.

“Other players have to find their bottle and really try to take it to him. When he is a front-runner like me, it is really hard to peg us back.”

Cool Hand also believes England boss Thomas Tuchel got his tactics wrong as the Three Lions suffered a painful 2-1 World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina.

England were just five minutes away from a place in the final before a late double blow saw them dumped out and their wait for another major trophy since 1966 go on.

He added: "I think it's pretty obvious to say that when we scored the tactics were probably wrong. I felt for maybe another 10/15 minutes we probably should've just kept going how we were.

"We could just see what was going to happen. You can't invite pressure for so long and expect to hold out.

"It was quite amazing what we did against Mexico to be fair like how we held that out. But to do it against the likes of Messi and people like that, it's a hard task.

"It's disappointing the way that the - not the players but the manager sat us back in that moment after scoring."

Humphries returns to action at the Winter Gardens on Monday and takes on Cameron Menzies in round one.

Words: Aaron Nijjar

Image: Taylor Lanning