"He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He won't be doing that again" - Wayne Mardle puts Luke Littler in the wrong after clash with van Veen in Premier League

The debacle from Luke Littler's and Gian van Veen's confrontation on the Manchester stage is still circulating around the darts world with many fans offering their views and perspectives on what actually occurred. Shortly after the quarterfinal clash in night nine of the Premier League Darts, Wayne Mardle pitched in on his view of the situation.

In Littler's home event in Manchester, the crowd was very much on his side, hoping that their man could cause a repeat of the 2026 PDC World Darts Championship final. It would be a very close match as 'The Nuke' came back from a 5-3 deficit to force a last-leg decider.

The world number one missed the first match dart for a 134 checkout on double seven, allowing the Dutchman to return on 90. He offered himself two bites at the cherry on double 15 but missed inside. He turned around in frustration before his eye caught Littler seemingly celebrating that missed double.

Littler was annoyed at this and threw his arms in the air to pump up the fans in the AO Arena. However, he himself went inside on double seven with his second dart, spurning the chance and allowing van Veen to come back and pin double six for a crucial win for his aspirations for qualifying for finals night.

He would go on to reach the final, losing to an inform Gerwyn Price who closed the gap at the top to Littler, who was still vexed with him posting a couple of stories on his Instagram page in reference to the contentious incident.

"I'm on 90, I miss double 15 on the inside, and then I see him celebrating towards the crowd. I don't think that's normal," Van Veen told Sky Sports. "And then he also makes that crying gesture. He's a fantastic darts player but today he showed he's not a good loser. Celebrating a miss from your opponent, that really annoys me."

Soon after the conclusion to the quarterfinal stage, former Premier League player turned darts pundit Mardle gave his view on the events occurring on stage. "I know exactly what happened," Mardle said on Sky Sports. "Van Veen went inside on D15 and Luke was happy about that so kind of gave it the Simon Whitlock 'well done'."

He believes Littler was in the wrong pulling off the manoeuvre. "You shouldn't do that and as he has done that, Gian has turned around thinking 'why did you do that?' I can lip read but I won't repeat what Luke said as I don't want to hand in my notice. You have got to say that Gian handled it better."

Mardle would again point out the wrongs Littler committed, but reasoned why he did it was because he believed that he would not get caught. "Luke did something he shouldn't have done and that was giving it this (celebration) but what he didn't expect was Gian to see him. He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He won't be doing that again."

Littler sits clear at the top two points clear of the Welsh duo Price and Jonny Clayton. While the three points were warmly welcomed by van Veen, a fourth final defeat in his debut campaign means that he now sits fifth in the standings, just outside the playoffs. A rematch between Littler and van Veen could come sooner than anticipated in the next Premier League event in Brighton. If they win their quarterfinal contests, they will take to the oche together once more.