An emotional Stephen Bunting has responded to pundits and fans who were "writing [him] off" before his Night Four Premier League win in Belfast, saying he has always deserved his place in the tournament.
Bunting produced one of the finest performances of his career in a first ever Premier League night win, beating World No 2 Luke Humphries 6-4, before a flawless 6-0 victory over Jonny Clayton set up a final with World Championship runner-up Gian Van Veen.
The Dutchman was no match for Bunting, however, as he cruised to a 6-2 victory for a first Premier League nightly win in 20 attempts.
"Everyone was writing me off before the tournament," Bunting said. "People were saying I shouldn't be in it but I know how hard I work.
"These are the nights I play for and the crowd pulled me through.
"I'm the only darts player at the moment with a one-year-old child. I have to juggle family life. I have a lovely family at home."
Despite his defiant response to his doubters, Bunting was keen to establish that his mindset had remained positive even when he was badly struggling for form in last year's Premier League.
"Last year - losing seven or eight games on the bounce - really helped me. It gave me a lot of experience in this field.
"When you are playing in the Premier League, you are facing the best of the best.
"I am overjoyed by this win. It will rank up there win one of my best wins. I was a bit emotional after my first game but I held it together."
"I have come off social media, have a great team around me and I am not looking at the negatives. I had hypnotherapy this morning.
"I believe I am one of the best players in the world and deserve to be in the Premier League. This goes a long way to showing I should be here.
"Every time I step up, I still believe I am one of the hardest players to beat. People find their best game and I always seem to lose to the winner.
"Tonight, I am the winner."
Former Premier League star Wayne Mardle, speaking on Your Site:
"It's great to hear that he wasn't lacking in confidence and panicking about the situation.
"What we do as human beings is project how we feel onto other people. We thought 'he'll definitely be going through it'. He wasn't.
"If that was Luke Littler or Luke Humphries we'd be talking about whether they were unbeatable or unplayable.
"He was unplayable - just ask Jonny Clayton."
