Taylor looking to Bounce Back at Players Championship

Phil Taylor is in action on the second night of the Players Championship Finals in Doncaster as he takes on the improving Steve Brown.

Taylor’s fall from grace has been dramatic, by his standards, over the past few months. As a result he has lost his aura of invincibility and that all important fear factor. And now players like Brown believe that they can beat the 15-time world champion, specifically in the short format matches.

"I've played Phil twice before on the tour and led against him both times, and perhaps thrown it away come the end. I'm not intimidated by playing him, if anything it spurs me on a little bit,” said Brown

"As long as I can hit two treble 20s in each three darts and check out with my first dart, I've got a great chance!"

The bookmakers still strongly favour Taylor to progress but odds of 2/9 on The Power are perhaps a little longer than they would have been six months ago. Brown is 3/1 to record his first ever victory over Taylor.

Friday night’s action also sees the main challengers to Taylor’s thrown in action. World Champion Adrian Lewis is a 2/5 chance to beat Steve Beaton in his opening round match while James Wade and Simon Whitlock are short prices to progress past Mark Dudbridge and Tony Eccles respectively.

The Power’s Alexandra Palace conqueror Mark Webster takes on Alan Tabern in a potentially tight affair. Webster is the 8/15 betting favourite with Tabern priced at 7/4 by the bookmakers to cause an upset.

Mervyn King got his season off to the perfect start last Saturday when he beat Vincent van der Voort to win the season’s inaugural PDC Pro Tour event. He has a tricky opening round match against the unpredictable Co Stompe but is favoured at odds of 4/6 to progress.

It promises to be a captivating night’s action in Doncaster all of which can be watched courtesy of the live streaming facilities available through many online bookmakers.