MICHAEL Smith moved into the semi-final of the Cazoo World Darts Championship after overcoming Stephen Bunting 5-3 in the all St Helens contest.

The New Year's Day  match saw Smith well below his best, but he still managed to pull away to a 4-1 advantage over Bunting.

However, Windle-based Bunting rallied and appeared to have fourth seed Smith rattled at one stage as he clawed the score back to 4-3.

But Smith found his composure to get over the line and move into Monday's semi-final.

Afterwards Smith admitted he had played "so poorly" but said he had managed to "grit it out" and grind out the win.

He said: "I don't think I can play that badly again.

"[But] you have to win games when you are not playing well."