Liverpool-daft Stephen Bunting has his eyes on another dream Anfield outing.
The Bullet wants to take his silverware back to showcase in front of Manchester United fans two days after the showpiece Final. Bunting has done it once before. After winning the BDO crown, he paraded at the stadium. Unfortunately, he was less well-known and the Kop chanted: “There’s Only one Phil Taylor!”
Nowadays, Bunting is a celebrity and he’ll get the songs if he grabs the PDC World Championship trophy and takes it back. The away end won’t be as charitable. It’s bitter-rivals United at Anfield on January 5 and he laughed: “I can imagine what the Man United fans would shout at me, though! And I don’t think it’d be: There’s only one Phil Taylor. I’ll tell you what, to walk on with it against United, that’s a dream come true, isn’t it? Obviously, the Lakeside Trophy, that time I didn’t have a massive fan base. I think if I win this title, I think everyone will know who I am and I think I might even get a couple of people cheering for me.
“I’d love to do that. That’s a dream that sort of push me through and I’d love to be able to do that. I’ve got tickets for the Leicester game on Boxing Day. I might be able to go and watch.
“If I’m not playing darts, there’s nothing better than going to Anfield. Caoimhin Kelleher is a really good friend of mine. I sent him a set of darts and a shirt the other day. He contacted me about nine months ago. He wanted a video for his brother, who plays in the lower league, because he’s a big fan and they all went on a stag do in Bunting shirts. It’s a nice avenue to get into the Liverpool team and, hopefully, he’s not shipped off pretty soon!”
Bunting’s head is in the right place for a title bid due to his long-term work with hypnotist Chris O’Connor. He said: “When my manager [first] talked about it, I sort of laughed. Obviously, the stigma around hypnotherapy is walking around the room barking like a dog. I thought, yeah, maybe not for me. But, listen, I’ve seen it in a different light.
“It’s so different from that and I’ve definitely found the benefits of what I’m doing now with the hypnotherapy in the past as well as the psychology sort of side as well. I’m 100 per cent different player now than what I was three, four years ago.”