Luke Littler pulled off an entertaining Premier League night win in Liverpool with a comfortable victory over Rob Cross in the final where he played up to being the pantomime villain with the crowd.
The 17-year-old is an avid Manchester United fan and has repeatedly taken shots at Liverpool on social media in recent weeks.
He expected a hostile reception at the M&S Bank Arena and he was given one for all of his matches from the Liverpool crowd.
Littler mocked Liverpool's recent 2-0 loss to Everton twice as he got on stage for his first match of the night against Gerwyn Price.
Luke Littler played up the crowd in Liverpool
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Being public enemy No 1 appeared to pump Littler up even more for his semi-final against Nathan Aspinall as he appeared on the verge of being knocked out.
Aspinall took a 5-2 lead, but missed a bunch of match darts to let Littler back into it.
And the teenager completed an impressive comeback before celebrating wildly on stage.
That set up a final against Cross, who has only won once in five meetings with the teenager.
The 33-year-old pulled off impressive wins over Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen to reach his second Premier League final of the season.
But he was very quickly at risk of suffering the first whitewash of the year as Littler raced to a comfortable 5-0 lead.
Cross struggled to keep up with Littler's relentless scoring with the Liverpool crowd seemingly stunned into silence.
The 2018 world champion got a rise out of the crowd in the sixth leg as he avoided the whitewash defeat and then won again to make it a more respectable scoreline.
Luke Littler was booed at the start of the night
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But there was no stopping the inevitable result as Littler eventually got the job done with his favoured double-10.
That now puts Littler on the verge of sealing his place in the play-offs as he's 11 points clear of fifth-placed Michael Smith.
The teenager is also far out in front at the top of the table with Luke Humphries his closest challenger five points behind.
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Luke Littler is clear at the top of the table
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Littler said: "I'm just happy with the way I've played - and this lovely bunch of people.
"It's been looking tight for the last two-three weeks, but I'm glad I've won tonight and I'm out the way a bit.
"I'm happy to just push myself away from the other people but I know it's going to be tight for the other bunch.
"There's only three weeks left and maybe I can top the table."
