Luke Littler has been told to learn from his mistakes after losing to Michael van Gerwen in the final of the second night in the Premier League.
The teenager paused when he had match darts against the Dutchman and Wayne Mardle has advised him to 'never' do it again.
Littler beat Rob Cross and Luke Humphries on his way to a first final in the Premier League in Berlin on Thursday.
He pushed seven-time champion Van Gerwen all the way in the final and had two darts to win the match on his favourite double 10.
Luke Littler has been told to learn from his mistakes after losing to Michael van Gerwen in the Premier League
Sky Sports
Littler was throwing first in the deciding leg at 5-5 and the odds were in his favour when he hit a treble 20 to leave him with 20 to check out.
The teenager has become known for his fast play on the oche ever since he burst onto the scene at Alexandra Palace in December.
However, after hitting 60, Littler gave himself time to think about his shot at the double 10.
He waited for nine seconds before throwing again, as he went through his action and took a deep breath.
Littler composed himself but his first dart just went the wrong side of the wire.
He then had to move position on the oche to get the right angle and his second landed in a single 10 to give Van Gerwen the chance of mopping up the win.
Van Gerwen took out 25 in his next three darts to confirm himself as the winner on night two in Germany.
At the time, former three-time world champion Jon Part said about Littler on commentary: "Well I don't know if the big pause really helped [Littler] there."
It was a feeling shared by his commentary colleague Mardle, who wrote on X: "Never pause, unless you absolutely have to."
Fans were also critical of Littler on social media for the pause he took on match darts.
One X user wrote: "Why did Luke littler pause mannnn, bottled it."
While another put: "Littler shot himself in the foot with that pause. He would’ve taken it out if he went straight for it."
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Luke Littler took a big pause when on match darts against Michael van Gerwen
Sky Sports
Many fans believe the young star will learn from his mistake with more experience on the big stage.
One wrote: "Why did Littler pause before going for D10?
"Didn’t fancy him as soon as he did that he’s such an instinctive player surely the pausing and having time to think doesn’t work for him, either way he’s some talent and the standard of darts now is simply incredible."
And another posted: "That pause cost Littler the win there but that's something he'll learn from."
Luke Littler practiced his throw during a nine-second pause on match darts
Sky Sports
Van Gerwen picked up five points from his win to move up to second in the table, level on points with Littler in third.
Night one winner Michael Smith is at the top of the table after he made it through to the semi-final in Berlin before losing to Van Gerwen.
Peter Wright and Nathan Aspinall remain without a point after successive quarter-final defeats.
Night three of the tournament takes place in Glasgow next Thursday, with Littler facing Gerwyn Price in his quarter-final.
