Josh Rock on crowd being against Aspinall in thrilling win: "It was up to him to deal with it and sadly he didn't as I know he can"

Josh Rock continued to prove just why he is so highly rated in a thrilling victory over two-time semi-finalist Nathan Aspinall to set up a mouthwatering last-16 tie with Jonny Clayton at the PDC World Darts Championship.

In an absolutely cracking match that had twenty-five 180's, Aspinall, usually a crowd favourite, was instead having to deal with the other side of the coin as Rock, one of the sport's newest stars, had the support of the Ally Pally faithful, something the young Northern Irishman noticed. "They were chanting my name a lot and to be fair, the first set they were against Nathan and I said to him 'the crowd is against you.' But it was up to him to deal with it and sadly he didn't as I know he can."

Despite this being Rock's debut year at the Alexandra Palace, he has had to deal with big expectations put on him and more media scrutiny than most so far. "Bookies are saying I'm the 4th favourite to win this," he says. "I don't care, I'm just going to try my best to win it. Bookies are only going off the last four/five months, what I've done towards the end of the year so that's up to them but Josh Rock is going to try and win this world championship and we'll see what happens."

As mentioned, in the last 16 Rock will face off against former Premier League winner and 7th seed, Jonny Clayton in what is sure to be one of the ties of the round.