Luke Littler may not have had the most successful spell since winning the World Darts Championship, but Rob Cross is far from concerned about the teenager’s form.
The pair meet in the Premier League on Thursday night in Glasgow in the second week of the eight-man event.
Cross was beaten in the semi-finals in Week One in Belfast by Chris Dobey while Littler lost his opening game to Michael van Gerwen.
That match was illustrative of Littler’s season so far as he played brilliantly, averaging an incredible 113.91 but narrowly lost 6-5 to the Dutchman.
Similarly he was downed 7-6 by Stephen Bunting at the Dutch Darts Masters while averaging 107.5 and lost to Gerwyn Price at the Bahrain Darts Masters averaging 105.1.
Former world champ Cross says opponents raising their game against the reigning Ally Pally King comes with the territory and Littler will have to continue to deal with it.
However, Voltage doesn’t see it as a problem for the Nuke as Littler’s game is hardly struggling and if he continues to play in the same way, the wins will come.
‘You tell me over the last year how many problems the boy’s had? He’s not really had a lot, has he?’ Cross said, via The Sun.
‘So I think you’d be naive to think that it’s going to affect him massively. He will have a target on his back now more so, obviously being World Champion. I think that’s a big thing in the game.
‘But he’s still playing great. He showed that and I think he’ll carry on. Why not? The game’s in a good place, he’s still playing very well.
‘He’s losing with big averages and sometimes you’ve just got to be patient and wait for the wins.’
While the world champion has not been finding himself in the winners’ circle over the last month, Cross has.
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Voltage won the Dutch Darts Masters in Den Bosch at the end of January and won Players Championship 1 earlier this week in Wigan, downing Joe Cullen in the final.
The 34-year-old goes into his Premier League clash with the world champ full of confidence and in fine form.
The other quarter-final contests on Thursday see Michael van Gerwen face Stephen Bunting, Nathan Aspinall take on Gerwyn Price and Luke Humphries play Chris Dobey, in a repeat of last week’s final which Humphries won.
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