PHIL ‘The Power’ Taylor has vowed to make protégé Adrian Lewis suffer when the PDC big-guns clash in the McCoy’s Premier League at the BIC tonight.

Lewis, the reigning world champion, needs to do what no other Premier League player has done this season and beat Taylor to give himself the best chance of qualifying for the event’s semi-finals.

The Stoke-on-Trent throwers played out one of the finest Premier League encounters in the tournament’s history during the opening night in Manchester and, since that 7-7 draw, Taylor has remained undefeated.

Lewis, meanwhile, has struggled and currently sits in fifth position after four defeats from his 10 matches.

Taylor, who has already qualified for the semi-finals, said: “Everyone else is under pressure to qualify, but I want to win every game and keep everyone else under pressure.

“I’m really looking forward to playing Adrian in Bournemouth. He is under pressure to beat me and he will come out firing.

“He is the world champion and I want to set my stall out to win this tournament.

“Adrian can do a lot better but he is going to play well and so will I. I’ve had to weekend off to get right.”

Elsewhere on the bill, Gary Anderson faces Kevin Painter, James Wade takes on Andy Hamilton and Raymond van Barneveld meets Simon Whitlock.

Wade said: “I don’t think there’s been a year like it. Anything could happen and anyone could qualify in the next few weeks.”

• See today's Echo to find out how our very own Jon Low fared in a match against Raymond van Barneveld yesterday!