John Terry tells Stephen Bunting to turn to dark arts and names two dirty tricks he can use on oche

Stephen Bunting’s first Premier League win of the season coincided with some prior advice from former Chelsea captain John Terry.

The world No.6 was without a win in the first three weeks of this year’s Premier League before finally claiming his success in Belfast on Thursday night.

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The Bullet saw off Luke Humphries 6-4 in a thrilling clash to take his first points of the season.

Bunting’s win comes after Terry offered some words of guidance to help turn around his fortunes.

Get nasty

The Chelsea legend had urged Bunting to administer the dark darts to get one up on his opponents when playing on the big stage.

Terry believes the move would unsettle his opponents and hand him an advantage on the oche.

“I have to say, with him, he seems like the nicest guy you will ever meet,” Terry told the Double Tops podcast, as quoted by The Sun.

“When I am watching the darts – and him in particular – I want to see a little bit of nasty.

“Just barge someone or create a little something to throw people off. He is the nicest guy – nobody is going to stand there and have a fight with him.

“But you then have to tap into the dark arts of going, ‘Okay, how can I drag my walk-out song even longer?’

“I want to be second out. For the first set, I am going to drop my darts by accident.

“All of these bits – why not give them a go? If somebody is really good in their rhythm, how do you break that?

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“You have to tap into stuff like that, and he needs to because he is so nice. I want to see a nastier Stephen Bunting.”

Bunting has shown signs of a return to his best form of late having reached the final of Players Championship Three and the quarter-finals of the Poland Masters.

But there have been signs that Bunting’s self-belief and confidence may have its fragilities.

The St Helens thrower was beaten 6-3 by world No.2 Gian van Veen in week three of the Premier League.

That followed a 6-4 loss to Jonny Clayton the previous week and a 6-2 thrashing at the hands of Michael van Gerwen on the opening night.

Bunting suffered a premature exit at the World Championship with defeat to James Hurrell in the third round at Ally Pally.

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“I’ve learned in the Premier League over the last two years that, as good as I think I am, there’s a lot better players in this sport than I am,” Bunting said.

“As long as I can keep entertaining, I believe I have got the game to beat anybody, but everything needs to be right on the day.

“If it is not, I’ll lose, and if it is, I’ll win.”