"The most enjoyable game of darts I've played in my career": Nathan Aspinall takes solace in confidence boosting Luke Littler defeat

For Nathan Aspinall, he may have been on the end of a chastening defeat to Luke Littler in that he threw the kitchen sink at it and still lost at the World Matchplay but he takes solace from such a defeat.

Aspinall has been open in interviews recently during and prior to the World Matchplay about his lack of darting desire due to personal issues going on off the oche that are taking his priority.

He said that feasibly he isn't going to back to his best fully until at least September and this has seen Aspinall not play a lot of events and shirk the ProTours for more time off. But what it has brought is a fire when it comes to 'The Asp'.

He took to social media on Tuesday night after his defeat and said that he now has the hunger back and it was the most enjoyable game of darts he has ever played in his career. "The most enjoyable game of darts I've played in my career. Had absolutely everything and I gave it my all," he wrote on Instagram.

"Fair play to Luke Littler you were simply unreal. Six treble less visits in 19 legs is the stat that jumps out to me. Wow. That's certainly given me the hunger back, support was unreal as per. Thank you everyone."

He spoke prior to his defeat to the media including DartsNews.com after winning against Joe Cullen and joked that if he's averaging 114 again, he will get wiped out and ironically he hit nearly that with just the 113 from Littler.

"Well I wouldn't, I'd get beat. Let's be honest with you, if he's averaging another 114 he's going to have to f***ing wipe me out. But yeah, I played well and I know Luke doesn't really watch the darts but I know his dad Anthony, he watches everything. And he'll say that Nathan's played well tonight and he'll know that.

"Listen, me and Luke are good mates, he beats me more than I beat him but I've got that crowd behind me. And I don't care, Luke Littler, whoever you are, that crowd will be roaring for me. Hopefully I can draw off the energy of the crowd on Tuesday night and produce something like that. Because if I produce something like that, bear in mind I missed quite a few doubles in that game. If they don't happen, I'm averaging under 109 myself there. So as long as I get some decent rest, we'll go Pleasure Beach tomorrow."