Nathan Aspinall blasts media for lack of respect after booking World Championship quarter-final spot

Nathan Aspinall feels he suffers from a lack of respect from the darts media, believing he is routinely written off despite his impressive achivements.

The former World Matchplay and UK Open champion booked a place in the quarter-finals of the World Championship on Monday afternoon thanks to a comfortable 4-0 win over Ricardo Pietreczko.

The Asp played well but the German was unbelievably bad, finishing with an average of 78.46, seemingly struggling with the occasion and the hostile reception from the London crowd.

Aspinall has now dropped just one set on his run to the last eight, where he will meet Luke Littler or Ryan Joyce, and he feels he should be talked up more in the press.

It has not been a spectacular year for the 33-year-old on tour and he was not tipped as one of the favourites heading to Alexandra Palace, but he thinks he should have been given his major titles and two semi-final appearances at Ally Pally in the past.

‘You underestimate me, all of you,’ Aspinall told a post-match press conference. ‘I never get any respect.

‘I’m not going to go all Joe Cullen here, but I always get written-off, no one ever talks about me and I’m a two-time major champion and a fantastic dart player.

‘I’ve come through so much, come back fighting and keep proving people wrong time and time again. It’s up to me to go up on that stage and prove you lot wrong who write me off.’

Despite it clearly being on his mind, the Asp insisted he is less bothered about the opinions of others than he used to be and he is enjoying himself on the oche at the moment.

‘I’ll do my thing, I’m past it now, it’s been years and years and years of worrying what other people think about me. I don’t care anymore,’ he said.

‘I’m going to go up there, play my darts. Win, lose, whatever, I’m just going to enjoy myself.

‘I’ve got a fantastic life. My family want for nowt, I’m making money playing darts, I’m just going to go up there and enjoy myself.’

Aspinall will almost certainly face a much sterner test against Littler of Joyce after a bizarrely easy outing for him against Pikachu.

‘It was odd he just couldn’t hit anything could he?’ Aspinall said.

‘I spoke to him after the game. Before the game started we spoke quite a bit, today I’ve probably spoke to him more than I’ve spoke to him in my whole career,’ said the Englishman.

‘He is a nice kid, but he needs to learn from today. It was hostile out there but he’s got to learn from that. If I play Ricardo in Germany I’m getting that same thing. But once you’ve experienced it once or twice you get used to it.

‘He’ll learn and come back stronger. He’s a fantastic dart player and I wish him all the best.’