PDC World Championship Tips: Thorn to deflate Asset

Thornton can put Nicholson in his place tonight.

With the niceties of the first round done with, it's time to get stuck into the nitty gritty of the action at Ally Pally...

One of the most impressive first round winners was Scotsman Robert Thornton, who continued his good run of form with a straight sets victory over Magnus Caris on night one of the tournament. The Thorn dropped just one leg and finished with a 99.06 three-dart average whilst hitting 53% of his darts at a finishing double.

It was a result and performance that left many looking forward to a potential third round clash with Phil Taylor, with Thornton seeking an unprecedented hat-trick of televised triumphs over the world number one.

Most people apart from Paul Nicholson that is, who tweeted to Sky Sports presenter Dave Clark: "Hi @DaveClarkTV. You do realise Robert has to play me first right?"

Clark didn't offer a response on Twitter, but safe to say that his presumption that Thornton will have no problems in beating Nicholson are widely shared.

The Scot has a 6-3 head-to-head advantage over The Asset, having won the last three meetings, he's won a Major title this season, reached the quarter-finals of another and regularly enjoyed success on the ProTour.

Nicholson, by contrast, has only once gone past the last 16 of a televised event this year, and even then, at the World Grand Prix, he didn't beat any players of note to reach the quarters. We did back him in his first round here, but that was only due to the extremely poor form of his opponent, Thornton presents an altogether more daunting prospect.

The Asset is well known for not being able to back up what he says with what he does at the oche and I think we'll se another example of this here.

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