Former World Matchplay champion and World No.1, Colin Lloyd knows what it takes to win big major tournaments something which has alluded Michael Smith thus far.

Smith reached the semi-finals of the World Matchplay losing out to Gary Anderson in a wide open tournament which was eventually won by Dimitri van den Bergh but Lloyd believes Smith’s first is ‘around the corner’.

"Another good run by Michael Smith, got to a semi-final of a major," Lloyd said on The Darts Show Podcast.

"I know we keep saying he's the nearly man. But in his game against Gary Anderson, he'd kept going five legs behind, and then he'd had a burst of four or five legs.

You have them bursts. If he had just hung in there and just been maybe two or three legs behind instead of five or six, he might have sneaked a result.

"But Gary used his experience - it was his highest average of the week in that match.

"[It was] a great run by Michael Smith. He's got to stay positive. He's a class act. And we keep saying it, he's probably sick and tired of hearing it - I think there's a big win just around the corner. He's just got to stay positive, and keep pushing, keep working hard and keep putting in the hard work. I think a big result will come."