Rattled Luke Littler fires back at booing Dublin crowd during surprise Premier League Darts defeat by Gerwyn Price, with home fans backing Welshman over the Englishman

Premier League Darts night three was one to forget for Luke Littler as he was beaten by Gerwyn Price in a match where he was booed and whistled by the Dublin crowd.

Price beat Luke Littler 6-4 in the quarter-final clash to make it five wins in a row over the teenage sensation.

The Iceman ended the match with an average of 102.64, having scored five 180s on his way to booking a place in the semi-finals. 

Littler was given a hard time by the Irish fans and he let them know how he felt about them midway through the match.

Littler landed hit double 14 to reduce his leg deficit and proceeded to gesture to to them to calm down before making a flicking motion.

It was more emotion that we are used to seeing from the usually calm and collected 17-year-old, who had spoken about fans whistling before the event. 

Littler said there is no place for whistling in darts, but does not think a player will ever walk off stage because of it. 

His comments came after his Premier League win in Glasgow last week, which was marred by the crowd whistling when his opponents were at the oche throwing crucial darts. 

Asked whether a player could walk off, Littler said: ‘well for us players, probably not. Obviously, I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone. If that was the worst case then I’m sure a player, I don’t know, has he got the right to walk off stage? Maybe, or maybe not.

‘If a player does walk off stage, then I’m sure the security, they’ve got to do their job and obviously kick whoever’s doing the whistling out. Just kick them out. And then I’m sure as players, we can get on with it.

‘Obviously it’s not a good thing for any fans to be whistling, whether it’s me or my opponent.

‘For example, last week Rob Cross when he missed two at double 18, they whistled, he missed. You can say it was the crowd’s fault that he missed those doubles because you never see Rob Cross miss double 18.

‘We’ve just got to get on with our job. And if the fans are whistling against our opponents then it’ll certainly help us.