Luke Littler beat Rob Cross to advance in the fourth round of the World Darts Championship but then unleashed an astonishing rant at Ally Pally fans for booing him during the match
Luke Littler beat Rob Cross to advance to the PDC World Darts Championship quarter-finals – and then let rip at the Ally Pally crowd for booing him during the match.
Littler, the defending champions, beat Cross, who was backed by fans at Ally Pally. And ‘The Nuke’ had some choice words after he was booed by some portions of the crowd up on the stage, both during the tie and while he was conducting his post-match interview for Sky Sports.
Visibly annoyed, Littler told the crowd: “Can I just say one thing. You guys pay for tickets and you pay for my prize money so thank you for my money, thank you for booing me! I just had to hold, Rob broke me, I broke him back.
“I just saw the stats then – I wasn’t thinking of anything- I just wanted to win. It was hostile, no one wanted me to win. They were wrong.
“It is not in reach just yet, you have got to get to the final.”
Littler hadn’t dropped a set in the championships until his match with Cross, winning 4-2. His comments were jumped on by fans online, with one quipping: “‘I’m not rattled’ from a visibly rattled Luke Littler”.
Another wrote on X: “Luke Littler is completely rattled. He knows what a darts crowd is like, he knows its pantomime. That comment about paying his prize money was classless IMO.”
Others, however, were all for Littler ‘entering his heel era’. One quipped: “Luke Littler heel turn I’m here for it”.
Speaking after Littler’s comments, Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle said: “It was a weird old interview!
“It was like he was looking for something, it was like he was being antagonised. It is how easy he makes it look. He just kept doing it and fair play to Rob Cross.
“It would have been easier for him to just buckle but he just got better and better. Rob had no form and to leave playing that well against what he was up against, it was an incredible game.
“Luke has just got these levels under pressure. There is nothing that he can’t do on a board and there is no situation that you are in as his opponent that is safe. You are never safe.
“Littler is getting to the point where you have never got him.”
