"I was sick in my mouth" - Joe Cullen recovers from painful setback to see off Ryan Searle

Joe Cullen secured his spot in the last sixteen at the World Darts Championship on Thursday afternoon. In the third round, 'The Rockstar' was too strong for Ryan Searle, 4-2 in sets.

Cullen won the first two sets of the match, but then Searle managed to come back to 2-2. An important fifth set followed, in which Searle missed opportunities to take a 2-3 lead, allowing Cullen to run away with the spoils, eventually taking the win.

"I'm made up. It wasn't the best performance obviously, but it was certainly solid enough," Cullen recapped in his post-match press conference. "I think, if I hadn't won it in the sixth set, maybe I'd have gone on to lose it because I put everything into that sixth set."

Earlier in the match, Cullen had three chances to take a 3-1 lead in sets. Those were missed, after which Searle managed to throw out 124 to make it 2-2. "I was sick in my mouth," he laughs. "I think if you've got lip readers you'll see me saying 'you've lost all composure'."

So reaching the last 16 in London marks another good result for Cullen at a major this season, after he already managed to reach the semifinals at the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix earlier this year.

''Normally I sort of go about it the wrong way around and do well on the floor but not so good on the TV. But this year, I've done rubbish on the floor and then I've put some good performances on TV. I'm not just rolling over and just losing to a rubbish performance. So yeah, my game's in a good place certainly," he assesses.

The 34-year-old Englishman will face Luke Humphries, one of the big favourites for final victory at the World Darts Championship, in the fourth round.