GUTTED Michael Smith revealed that even his pet GOOSE fell out with him after he lost the World Championship final.
The protege of Gary Anderson was beaten by Scot Peter Wright and left the stage in a flood of tears at the Ally Pally in early January.
Smith, 31, broke the hearts of darts fans as the emotions took over and he now wants to end the heartbreak with a return to glory in the Premier League.
He admitted: “It was good to come home with the animals, it brings you back down to earth.
“When you are on a run at the Worlds, it’s like a dream and you are waiting for someone to pinch you.
“The male goose has changed towards me though. I came back from the Ally Pally and he’s normally the first one that runs over to me.
“But this time I sat on the step and he came over and bit me and spat at me!
“It was so tough after losing on stage. When I looked round after the final, my son Junior started balling crying.
“John McDonald came up to me on stage and ‘come on mate, I’m with you’. He said I didn’t have to do the interview but I said I wanted to.
“I went backstage and sat in the little room and Mandy the security girl came in and I literally just went, all the emotion came out.
“Then my wife Dagmara and the kids came in, Junior hugged me from the back crying. Dag had to leave the room because she started crying. I told myself I had to stop and man up!
“Junior was proper bad. But I told him ‘I promise you I will win it for you one day’. He then stopped crying and so did I.
“But for two weeks now my youngest son Kasper has been playing darts pretending to be me taking on Peter Wright. So all I hear is Peter Wright’s name every day.
“He’ll stand at the bottom of the stairs and do the John McDonald MC stuff, run upstairs into his bedroom. Then throw at the board with my darts, downstairs again to sing Peter’s walk-on and then throw with his darts!
“The kids remind me of the final every day. But now all they say to me now is ‘when can we get the bigger trophy?’”
Smith believes that glory is on the way, adding: “Since 2014, I know I can pull out the big results. I’ve been in the top 10 for seven years. I’ve not won a ranking major yet. But that’s why I don’t get depressed after getting beat.
“I know that my consistency in the tournaments and in the top 10 is there.
“I’m hard on myself, probably too hard. I want to be No.1, I want to win everything.
“But I’m proud of myself for competing, I’m not just turning up. I’m pushing the best players in the world to deciding legs or sets. I want to get over that line. With more finals, that will happen.”
Story by Phil Lanning. Images by Taylor Lanning.
