James Wade beat Mervyn King to book his place in the semi-final of the World Darts Championship and then channelled his inner Kevin Keegan with a rant at Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle.
Wade, competing in his 20th consecutive world championship, made short work of fan favourite Mervyn King in the quarter-final, whitewashing the veteran 5-0.
In doing so, 'The Machine' confirmed his place in the semi-final of the competition for the first time since 2013, the Daily Star reports.
After the match, the 38-year-old appeared to take more delight in proving his critics wrong than making it through to his fourth Ally Pally semi, saving particular scorn for Mardle.
Asked by the Tungsten Tales YouTube channel whether he enjoys proving the critics wrong, Wade said: "People like yourself, yeah, I love it. And Wayne, Wayne Mardle, I love proving him wrong, love proving him wrong.
"All of reporters and news and people that are important in the game of darts, most of them will write me off.
Later on in the interview, Wade channelled his inner Keegan and added: "As I said, and I don't mean it in a personal or derogatory way towards Wayne Mardle, you know, he always tips me off to not do this and not do that.
"I've won more than Wayne did in probably two weeks than he did in his entire career. But he's hell bent on being a little bit silly.
"But as I say, I'm really, really fortunate I won my game today and I'm looking forward to the next one."
The Machine isn't the first player to take a pop at Mardle either.
Earlier this year, Rob Cross launched a scathing attack on Hawaii 501, calling the pundit "irrelevant" and telling him to "pay my bills" after commenting on his throwing style.
"To be honest with you, I pay my own bills, I feed my kids so no one else can tell me how they think they should play the game because I pay my own bills," Cross said.
"If Wayne wanted to, have that much of an opinion, tell him to pay my bills and I will throw the way he wants. And to be honest with you, I’ve got no problem with that.
"When he starts feeding my kids mouths, he can do that. But apart from that, if he’s not doing that, he’s irrelevant."
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