Price admits MVG gets "into his head"
FIRED-UP Gerwyn Price admits that Michael van Gerwen gets “into his head” before they face each other in Belfast.
The Welshman takes on MVG in the Unibet Premier League tonight having lost all his previous 15 clashes with the dynamic Dutchman.
Now Price wants to stop the rot at the SSE Arena to step up his bid for a Play-Off place.
He said: “I had a really good start to the Premier League, then obviously playing Michael was going to be tough and I played probably the worst game I'd ever played
“I thought I'd try and back it up by beating Rob Cross but that didn't work and I targeted four points from Rotterdam, but on the first night a couple of things in my head weren't right, but I put those to bed.
“The first five games I was unbeaten and I think I was probably hard done by in two of those three draws.
“But if you don't take those points when they're there then it's going to come back and bite you later on and it almost did.
“I needed a win to try and get myself back in contention for The O2 so I think I've done that and I'm looking forward to the second half of the Premier League."
Price ended a run of three successive defeats with victory over Peter Wright last Thursday to revive his play-off hopes, though he is now two points adrift of the top four heading into the toughest possible fixture.
He added: “You go up there and just play the same game every time.
“Sometimes when you play different individuals like Michael - he can probably get in my head a little bit, but apart from him, I'm alright!
“I don't worry about what the bookies say, whether I'm an underdog or favourite, I just go out and play the best I can.
“There's probably more pressure on me to play in Cardiff than anything and once I knew I wasn't out, it took a lot of weight off my shoulders.
“My aim at the beginning was to get to Cardiff and I've done it, so I can just relax a little bit now and I'm sure I'll start to play a lot better darts and maybe hit one of those nine-darters.”
By Phil Lanning (@lannomedia)
Pic by Taylor Lanning