Josh Rock responds to crowd jeers as he edges closer to unwanted Premier League history

Josh Rock endured another miserable evening on night seven of the Premier League.

The Northern Irishman was subjected to a hostile atmosphere as he faced Gerwyn Price in Dublin.

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Rock was booed as he made his way to the oche before suffering a 6-0 whitewash defeat to the Iceman.

It means he remains winless after seven weeks of action in his debut Premier League campaign.

As well as the scoreline, Rock averaged just 84.21 and missed all four of his darts at a double.

His latest defeat was also the heaviest he has suffered so far in the tournament.

Reacting on Sky Sports’ commentary, Wayne Mardle said: “Rock is under it constantly. It can turn around. It’s just hard to see a world-class operator play like this.

“Price can do what he likes. He’s setting up tops every single time.”

Rock responds to jeers

Rock appeared to be frustrated by the jeers from the fans as he left the stage at the 3Arena.

The 24-year-old smiled sarcastically towards the Irish crowd before giving them a thumbs up as he trudged off the oche.

His response comes just a week after Luke Littler hit back at the crowd’s antics in Nottingham.

Rock is now just two weeks away from equalling an unwanted Premier League record.

Quarter-final exits in Berlin and Manchester would see him match Glen Durrant’s run of nine matches without a win in 2021.

The former Premier League champion is the only player to fail to win a match during a campaign after being eliminated in week nine under the old format.

Since the current format was introduced, no player has failed to win less than two matches in a season.

Peter Wright’s two wins from 18 games to return four points in 2024 is the worst record by a player since the change four years ago.

Rock ‘too nice’

Rock’s frustrating Thursday night in Dublin came just days after he was labelled ‘too nice’ by World Cup of Darts team-mate Daryl Gurney.

The pair won together, representing Northern Ireland in June last year.

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Gurney told Tungsten Tales: “Sometimes Josh is just too nice.

“He needs to get into his own zone and think, ‘everyone’s here to beat me’, not the other way around.”

Responding to those comments ahead of night seven, Rock admitted: “Yes, I could do [channel my anger], but I need something to get me angry. I can’t just put it on.

“There are times there’s been matches I’ve been involved in when I’ve put the angry head on because something’s annoyed me during a game or whatever and I’ve been untouchable.

“But something like that has to happen for me to get me going.

“I just go up there and believe my ability is better than theirs on the night.

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“Obviously, it’s not going to plan just at the minute, but that will change.”

Rock will be hoping to avoid an eighth consecutive defeat when he takes on top of the table Jonny Clayton in the German capital next week.