Mitchell admits 'you get eaten up' in the PDC if you are not at your best

Scotty Dog is set to pit his wits against the best in the world once again this week, with four PDC Players Championship events to take place from Monday to Thursday in Coventry.

And the 51-year-old, a former BDO World Champion, insisted he had to get things right to compete with the big guns at the “brutal” level he now competed at.

He told the Daily Echo: “It’s just a pity I came to it in the BDO circuit at 38 or 39 years old. I wish I’d have come to it at 28 or 29. I think I’d have been in a better place.

“But you can’t look back, we’ll keep looking forward and try to get things right because it is absolutely brutal over there (in the PDC) and you’ve got to be on your game and you’ve got to be at your best or you get eaten up.

“I like that sort of challenge, that suits me.

“I’ve never been one that wanted a pat on the back when you know you’ve not played well.

“You want to play your best. When you’re playing well, you know you’re playing well.”

A successful week in the west Midlands for Bransgore’s Mitchell could see him climb the order of merit and earn the chance to compete at this month’s World Matchplay in Blackpool.

But Mitchell insists he will not be looking at rankings ahead of an important week in his season.

“At the end of the day, I’ve always been a very simple dart player,” he added.

“Just keep playing until someone tells me to go home. I do honestly try to keep it that simple.

“I don’t try to look at rankings. I never did in the BDO, I just let other people tell me.

“There’s enough people out there that will tell you what you’re doing, so I’m quite happy with that. I don’t go looking for it.

“People find that strange, but I don’t think it changes anything by looking for it or not.

“Every game you want to try and win anyway, so I don’t see any knowing of where you are in the rankings changes that.

“It’s worked for me in the past and I’m trying to make it work for me that way again.”