Luke Littler “not that good to take things for granted” believes Dennis Priestley

Former World Champion Dennis Priestley has urged Luke Littler to adopt Phil Taylor’s winning mentality and avoid becoming complacent on the oche.

Littler was beaten by Rob Cross on his World Grand Prix debut in Leicester last week, marking a second successive First Round exit in a PDC major.

The reigning Premier League champion also suffered successive Second Round defeats on the ProTour in midweek and will be looking to return to the winner’s circle at the Czech Darts Open in Prague this weekend.

Priestley, the only man ever to win both the BDO and PDC World Championships at his first attempt, believes Littler has become distracted in recent weeks and insists the 17-year-old can ill-afford to allow complacency to creep in to his game.

Speaking to BoyleSports, who offer the latest Darts odds, Priestley said: “It looks that way for Luke [getting distracted by things away from the oche like video games]. He’s not that good to be able to take things for granted.

“The more times he keeps getting beaten, the more it’s going to affect his confidence. He needs to inherit the aura about him like Phil Taylor had.

“Phil set the bar very high, followed by Michael van Gerwen so Luke needs to produce year after year.

“In the modern day there’s more money to be won so that’s where Luke needs to have Taylor’s mentality.

“If Littler feels he needs some advice, it wouldn’t hurt to reach out to Phil. He has to have that mentality if he wants to be thought of as one of the best players of all time.”

Littler is now ranked inside the world’s top 20 in his first season as a Tour Card holder and has racked up five ranking titles, as well as the Premier League, World Series Finals, Poland Masters and Bahrain Masters.

The teenage sensation will make his debut in the European Championship later this month, as well as November’s Grand Slam and Players Championship Finals, before returning to Ally Pally in a quest to go one better than his runner-up spot on debut.