MICHAEL VAN GERWEN has brutally labelled a darts rival as “pub player”;, but insists he is not being harsh.
The savage dig came after the three-time world champion defeated Pero Ljubic at the Darts Masters on Friday.
faced his opponent in the first round, winning 6-4.
However, the 36-year-old – by his own admission – did not have a great game as he averaged 84.71 and landed six out of 19 checkout attempts at 31.6 per cent.
Fortunately for the world No3, his rival did not fare any better at the oche.
Ljubic, 47, put up an average of 82.69 but had an even worse checkout rate with just four of 13 attempts at 30.8 per cent.
And Mighty Mike – blunt as ever – did not sugarcoat his opinions of the game, including giving both barrels at Ljubic.
As per Oche, he said: “It wasn’t a good game at all. Pero needs to be happy that he won one leg.
“Pero is not a good player. Pero is a pub player — we all know that,
“I’m not harsh — he is a lovely man but when you throw treble 12 for treble 20 then you need to go back to the dartboard.
“Did you ever see me do that? I can only blame myself, I didn’t play well.
“I’m the one to blame. But I made Pero look good today. Pero won a few legs and it feels like his birthday!
“I was going to win anyway. You want honest answers — I give you honest answers. Tomorrow is a different story — then I am up against the big boys.”;
after a horror leg where he and Niko Springer took 26 darts to finish a leg at 19 in June.
His victory set up a quarter-final against .
The first matches of the quarter-finals will take place from 6:10pm tonight.
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