Luke Littler found himself ironically jeered by the crowd after failing to hit a nine-dart leg at the Players Championship Finals. The teenager was again in superb form in his second-round match, hammering Danny Noppert 10-3 to set up a clash with Mike De Decker tomorrow.

But twice against the Dutchman, he started a leg with six perfect darts, only to go astray with the seventh.

On both occasions, he still took the leg, was visibly annoyed with himself amid groans from the fans.

And in his post-match interview, Littler vowed to change his tactics if he gets close to another perfect leg. Asked if he felt "that nine-darter was getting closer," the 17-year-old smiled as he replied.

"Every time I start any leg with a 180 they expect me to follow up," he said. I think tomorrow if I do get a shot, it's going to be treble 17 for double 15 if I do hit the treble 20. I'll switch it up."

Back in May, Littler famously nailed the perfect nine darts in his Premier League final win over Luke Humphries. And after capturing his first televised rankings title win at the Grand Slam of Darts last week, the youngster again looks the man to beat this weekend.

He came out on fire against Noppert, taking the first two legs, but his opponent hung in there to trail just 3-2 at the break. However, by the time the next interval came around, he was 8-2 down as the world No.5 reeled off five legs in a row, before coming back out to finish the job.

And he admitted to being full of confidence as he continues his build-up to the PDC World Championship at Ally Pally next month. "Obviously, any player when they're playing well game after game, they're very happy," he said.

"But it's just about winning now and getting up tomorrow for the final session. I've come down to Minehead with loads of confidence, got past the first two rounds, and now I can look at the longer format with suits me."

Littler came through an epic final leg decider with De Decker in Wolverhampton last week, but won't be breaking his normal routie ahead of their latest meeting, Asked how he planned to prepare for the clash, he implied he would be keeping things simple.

"Just go back (to my room), chill out on my phone, play a bit on my Nintendo Switch," he said. Then go to bed and be up early for tomorrow."