Gerwyn Price ruthlessly bemoaned his lack of perfection after beating Luke Littler 8-1 at the Australian Darts Masters. The Welshman produced his best performance of the year to defeat the Premier League Darts champion.

Not many players have made easy work of Littler since his emergence at the World Darts Championship last winter. However, the 17-year-old found himself 5-0 down against Price by the time he claimed his only leg of the match.

Price secured a comfortable 8-1 victory but quipped that he wished it had been 8-0, showing his perfectionist side. The 39-year-old was asked by the PDC how he felt after beating Littler.

He responded: "Yeah, I just wish it was 8-0.”

Price earned himself the top £20,000 prize with his victory over Littler, simultaneously denying the teenager an eighth title in as many months. The Iceman has performed well this season with little to show for it, and admitted that the prospect of facing the in-form Littler made him raise his game.

He said: "Probably just playing Luke, I know I need to get myself up, get myself ready for the game.

"I probably haven’t done that over the last couple of weeks and months, I just haven’t been able to motivate myself. When you put him (Littler) under constant pressure, he starts missing a couple of doubles, maybe one or two legs could’ve gone his way.

"I just kept the pressure on him and when you miss those doubles, which I’ve done in the past and it’s cost me matches, but it doesn’t matter if it’s 8-1, 8-7, 8-0, as long as I get a win."

Littler refused to make any excuses for one of his heaviest defeats of the season. He said: “Fair play to Gezzy. I couldn’t keep up with him there.

“He didn’t miss much and he deserved the win. There’s no excuses. I was poor in that final, but hopefully I can carry my form from my first two games into New Zealand.”

Price will hope to continue his positive form into the New Zealand Masters, which begins on Friday. Littler will want a major improvement on his display against Price and will look to add to his World Series titles in Bahrain and Poland.

The Runcorn-born star had beaten Rob Modra, Michael Smith and Dimitri van den Burgh to reach the final of the Australian Masters. He faces Jonny Tata in the first round of the New Zealand Masters tomorrow.