Daryl Gurney keeps play-off hopes alive in Birmingham

‘Superchin’ remains sixth in the table but is only a point of the play-offs with three regular season games remaining.

“I think anything other than a win there put me out of the running and thankfully I did, it was a hard struggle up there,” said Gurney.

“Usually I go 2-0 up and fall asleep and it goes 2-2 but this time it worked the other way round. I’m glad to get a win over any player in the Premier League, that keeps me in the hunt and keeps me interested.”

Gurney faces world champion Michael van Gerwen in Manchester next week in another must win game but he has already beaten the Dutchman 7-5 in this year’s Premier League.

“I think there are players that need to wear nappies when they play him,” he said. “When I play him I try to be on my A game and if I’m not I’m going to get hammered, if I can get something out of that game, which I probably need now at this stage, hopefully I can still make the O2.”

Wright stormed into a 2-0 lead but Gurney responded with checkouts of 32 and 86 to level the game. A 180 and a 140 helped Gurney down to 101 in leg five and he took it out on D16 to take the lead. The next two legs went with throw before wright took out a 124 on the bull in level eight to square the match again at 4-4.

Gurney restored his lead with D10 finish in leg 10 and took out 116 on tops in the next leg to extend his lead. Gurney wrapped the match up with finishes on D8 and 86.