"He knew exactly what he was doing": Joe Cullen doubles down amid 'cheating' storm, reiterates foul play from Mensur Suljovic

Joe Cullen has refused to back down from his assertion that Mensur Suljovic was cheating during their explosive PDC World Darts Championship tie which made headlines after 'The Rockstar' called out cheating on social media post match.

Suljovic was accused of dodgy tactics in slowing down his play and also over celebrating every single leg he won which seemed to annoy Cullen to a boiling point as he took to social media post match and described it as cheating.

But speaking to local press in his home town of Bradford, he doubled down on the claim and said that he knew what he was getting himself in for but that it was cheating plain and simple despite of course having a few days reflect on it since. Luke Littler though saw it as the opposite as he sided with Suljovic who he faces on Saturday.

“It was a bit of a head loss from myself afterwards, though I still don’t agree with what Mensur does. I know he plays that way most of the time, but he was worse than usual," said Cullen as per Telegraph and Argus.

“He even got warned by the referee, which I’ve never seen before, so I can point my finger at Mensur and say he was an a****ole. But ultimately, Mensur was poor and I let it affect me, which is more of a gripe on my part.”

“I still personally think it is cheating. I’ve always said it since I started playing, if you’re doing something to deliberately affect the other player, I stand by believing that’s cheating.

“I’ve always got on with Mensur pretty well, so it was disappointing. He knew exactly what he was doing and he did exactly what I expected, just a little bit worse. Ultimately he was very poor and that’s the most frustrating thing for myself, because I should win that game comfortably.”

Asked if it was just frustration getting the better of him and he said it likely was something to do with it and that in his mind he shouldn't have lost the game in the first place.

“Maybe there’s a little bit of that. I’ve been playing for a long time now and I think it was one of those games where I just got frustrated. Missing darts frustrates you even more, so it was a combination of things, Mensur doing what he did was probably just the tip of the iceberg.

“Now I’ve had a couple of days to reflect, the most frustrating thing for me is that I shouldn’t have lost the game. It shouldn’t even have been close.”

But despite that, he is not of the view of putting it right immediately with Cullen taking a few weeks to breathe instead after a pretty poor year and he said he may book a holiday but no matter what he won't be practicing into the new year.

“I can’t wait to be honest. I’ve not got any tournaments now until the end of January (the World Masters) so I might look at going on holiday next month.

“Even if I don’t, I’ll just be spending time at home. I won’t pick my darts up again until about a week or two before the tournament, so I’ll have a solid four weeks away from the game.

“The door of my practice room will definitely be shut for the next four weeks.”